WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Wheaton beats Illinois Wesleyan, 80-72 on Where Have You Been All Season, Jill Berg? Senior Night.

The Sonic Atmospheric Disturbance is now knotted atop the standings with NPU and has the inside track to the #1 seed.

[iwu70]

Yes, Berg the big difference tonight, WC the better team on the night.

IWU:
Sosa 20
Munroe 20
Shanks 10
Eck 9, sadly fouling out with 6:30 to go
Brovelli with less than 5 minutes.

WC:
Hannah Williams 18
Berg 14 and 9, hard to stop in the paint, Titans had no answer for her close to the basket.
Hannah Frazier, 12
Swider 11

Brovelli lost to injuring almost the entire game.  I hope not serious.  Eck fouling out also hurt.  Titans not shooting it well, esp. FTs.  WC shooting it well, esp. down the stretch, in 4Q.  The TITANS looked a bit tired tonight.  Perhaps the week off really helped WC in this game, this scheduling, and of course playing at home.  Titans tired after the MU loss too, not playing all that well tonight.  A long season. 

Well, perhaps there will be another WC-IWU game, like last year.

Wheaton the better team tonight.  Congrats to all their seniors on Senior Night.

IWU'70

[Gregory Sager]

Illinois Wesleyan definitely missed Brovelli tonight, although I think Wheaton ultimately wins even if Brovelli had been available. It just would've been closer. The Titans missed too many FT and trey attempts (until Sam Munroe got hot at the end), and Wheaton was simply too good at passing over the top of the press and the halfcourt traps. And, even though Lowis did a pretty good job containing Hannah Frazier for the most part, there was waaaaay too much Hannah Williams tonight if you're a fan of the Greenies -- 18 points and an 8:1 floor game for the Lesser Hannah. Yowch!

Brovelli turned her ankle in the first quarter, and then sat until she came back in midway through the third. Can't do that; if you're gonna gut out a turned ankle, you have to keep playing on it, because if you sit it'll swell up on you. By the time she came back in over a half-hour later, as Mark said, she had no mobility. In the fourth quarter her shoe was off and on one close-up shot of the Titans bench you could see her ankle had swelled. I think that that one's on Mia Smith.

Titans also have to be kicking themselves over Catie Eck's play. She has a lot of ability and plays with a lot of energy, but she's too out of control for her own good and her own team's good. She was making a big difference on defense, but got herself into foul trouble and then made a dumb mistake in the backcourt going after a loose ball that she had no prayer of getting to foul out of a game where her team really needed her.

Hate to say it, but I gotta tip my hat to Wheaton. There's a reason why the Sonic Atmospheric Disturbance keeps winning this league every year. They've definitely come up huge in the big games over the past two weeks, which is what you'd expect with a senior-laden squad that knows how to win.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Another thing that really hurt the Titans tonite was Langford having probably her worst game ever as a Titan.  She finished 0-10 from the field (and zero total pts), and only 2 rebounds, in 23 minutes.

Without Brovelli, and with Eck fouling out rather early, Berg went crazy late in the game.  Berg and Williams were an unstoppable duo - it felt like nearly the whole Wheaton offense in Q4 was Berg feeding Williams or vice versa.

[GoPerry]

Hannah Williams   18 pts, 8 asst, 2 stls
Jill Berg            14 pts, 9 rebs
Hannah Frazier      12 pts, 9 rebs
Hannah Swider       11 pts, 4 rebs

Kendall Sosa          20 pts
Sam Munroe        20 pts 6 rebs
Sydney Shanks       10 pts, 5 rebs

Wheaton needed a really good effort tonight and they really delivered. This was one of the best and most complete games the Thunder ladies have played this year.  As they extended the lead out, they made some critical plays and baskets that kept the Titans from really getting back into it.

This was a team that played with lots of confidence on the offensive end.  There was no hint of that tentativeness that had characterized some of their earlier losses.  Also, they played a very solid defensive game against a pretty powerful IWU offense.  They got really good minutes once again from freshman Zoe Nordling who continues to play with good poise.  And I think having Jordan Myroth back was a big factor for her defense, ball handling, scoring and leadership.

As already mentioned, Jill Berg played with lots of confidence and was a difference maker tonight.  No question Titans missed Brovelli as they were -9 on rebounds.

A really good win but need to continue.  Wheaton now in control of their own destiny and have a chance to build some steam going into the last week.

..... and Wheaton was simply too good at passing over the top of the press and the halfcourt traps.

Like at Shirk last month, Wheaton really had little problem with the press.  I know pressure defense is a primary IWU weapon for Mia Smith.  But I was surprised the Titans stayed with it.  A few times the Titans made some baskets to start building some momentum but would give up an easy basket off the press which had to be deflating.  Between Myroth, Williams, Demski, Swider, they're pretty solid ball handlers especially when they're prepared for the traps etc.

[RogK]

attended the Millikin / Elmhurst contest --
Elmhurst was without 2 (K Jean & C O'Donnell) of their 3 "bigs" and had their hands full trying to guard Millikin's tall players.
Millikin's Bailey Coffman excelled, pouring in 23 pts in 19:00, making 7/10 FGs (.850 eFG%), 6/7 FTs , also grabbing 10 rebs and dishing 5 assists. She seemed to be enjoying things against shorter defenders.
EC's sole regular "big," Becca Gerke was honored along with Lauren Goff for Senior Day. Under the category of sportsmanship, Millikin applauded nicely during the presentations.
EC seemed to deal with the height difference by clogging the lane and allowing/encouraging MU to shoot threes. MU made 9 of 18 (Coffman 3/3, Jazmin Brown 2/2), but also declined to shoot several open chances.
MU's Jordan Hildebrand did well, 7/9 2FGs, 1/2 FT for 15 pts, adding 3 assists. Aubrey Staton tallied an efficient 8 pts, adding 2 blocks, 2 steals.
Miranda Fox was relied on for 33:00, taking care of much ballhandling and other purposes.
Abby Ratsch's 20:00 were productive : 5 rebs, 3 stls, 6 assists, 8 pts.
Elmhurst got 15 pts from Sophia Lathe (.650 eFG%). Gerke helped with 13 pts (6/10 2FG), 6 rebs, 3 assists. Becca Christlieb had 3 steals in 19:00 and made 3 of 4 2FGs.

[RogK]

amended standings :
10-4 NPU WHE
9-5 IWU
8-6 MIL
7-7 NCC
7-8 AUG
6-8 CTG
4-11 ELM
3-11 CRL

[Gregory Sager]

Augustana 64
Carthage 53

Lauren Hall really big-timed it tonight with 26 points (9-12 FG, 8-9 trey) and 8 rebounds in a must-win for Augie.

Incidentally, Hall's eight treys set a new Augustana record.

Alexis Jones only scored seven points, but that nevertheless put her into Augie's Thousand Points Club.

[Gregory Sager]

This is what's left for the seven teams battling for tourney spots:

*Wheaton	10-4	@ Carroll	vs. North Central
*North Park	10-4	@ Millikin	@ Augustana
*Illinois Wesleyan	9-5	vs. North Centrall	@ Carthage
*Millikin	8-6	vs. North Park	@ Carroll
North Central	7-7	@ Illinois Wesleyan	@ Wheaton
Augustana	7-8	-- bye --	vs. North Park
Carthage	6-8	vs. Elmhurst	vs. Illinois Wesleyanl

* Clinched tournament berth

[iwu70]

Looks to me now that WC, as predicted, to win the regular season, host the CCIW tournament.

For IWU to really be a strong team, esp. next year, when many of their key players will be seniors, they really have to shoot FTs better.  This has been a weakness all year -- save pretty much for Shanks and Sosa. 

Brovelli being injured and out, a big problem vs. Wheaton.  Still don't understand why Mia didn't sub Eck in when Brovelli had to depart, not Lowis -- to shoot the FTs.  Odd.  Was Eck already in the game?

WC had a solid all-round performance, many contributors.  Berg a big difference down the stretch. 

IWU'70

[RogK]

some to be considered for Player of the Week :
Allison Pearson, Lauren Hall, Kendall Sosa, Sammie Woodward; each did well in 2 games.

[GoPerry]

some to be considered for Player of the Week :
Allison Pearson, Lauren Hall, Kendall Sosa, Sammie Woodward; each did well in 2 games.

Allison Pearson would be deserving for a 2-0 team and also has been putting up some pretty good #s over the last 8 games.  Averaging about 18 pts/g.   Lauren Hall put up better overall #s however although her team went 1-1.

[Gregory Sager]

Allison Pearson really deserves it. North Central was in must-win territory this past week, and she was the statistically dominant player in both Cardinals victories. I watched the NCC @ CU game yesterday, and the Cardinals don't win that game without Allison doing all the heavy lifting at the offensive end during their fourth-quarter comeback from a double-digit deficit, and then spurring them on to victory in OT.

[Peter Nicholson]

Brovelli being injured and out, a big problem vs. Wheaton.  Still don't understand why Mia didn't sub Eck in when Brovelli had to depart, not Lowis -- to shoot the FTs.  Odd.  Was Eck already in the game?

No.  All starters were still in when Brovelli was fouled, went down and left the game at 5:42 1st.  Eck entered the game at 5:09 1st replacing Kendall Sosa.

[RogK]

Incidentally, it occurred to me to look at Millikin's 2-0 week.
Abby Ratsch played basically half of each game. Her two-game sums :
min    2FG     3FG       FT     pts   reb   blocks    steals   PF     assists     TO
41     7/12     2/5      2/4     22     11      1           3       5         8          6
That's a significant, mostly positive, impact on those games. The rebounding, though, lowered her season REB/MIN from .360 to .353 (still darned good).