WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Wheaton goes down in OT to a Whitman team that got hot from downtown late, 86-83.

Wheaton and Whitman tied at 37 all at halftime.  Wheaton was down as much as 10 but didn't panic and got back to take the lead by 1.

Whitman playing without NWC PoY Makana Stone but still a very good fundamentally sound team.

Just tuned in. Why isn't Stone playing?

Looks like she's in civies on the bench.  No explanation.

Her backup, Taylor Chambers, certainly rose to the occasion. Chambers, who averaged 4.2 ppg on the season, finished with 15 points, 8 rebounds (to 3 turnovers), and 3 steals.

Neither of the two primary Hannahs for Wheaton, Frazier and Williams, shot well from the field tonight -- they were a combined 12-32 -- but they still went down swinging, with 27 and 18 points, respectively.

[iwu70]

Hope leading at the half over Grove City 25-11.  Sounds like a football score.

Tough loss in OT for WC.  Congrats on a great season, good luck for future endeavors to all of Wheaton's fine and dedicated seniors. 

Gonna be a battle tomorrow  --  IWU vs. HOPE.

'70

[RogK]

Congrats to Wheaton for (another!) very good season. Lots of opportunity for returning players and new arrivals to do well next season.

[RogK]

A sad aspect of being a good team is that your season will likely end with a loss; 63 of 64 tournament teams will end with a loss, including 48 during this somewhat cruel weekend.

[iwu70]

Hope all over Grove City.  No contest really.  GC may not get to 20 points for 4Qs.

Hope seems long and tall, but not particularly fast. Hope the TITANS style of pace and pressure will work against them.  They've probably not faced much of this style of play in their season, with so so many blowouts, save for the close games with Trine.

Should be interesting.  I wish Grove City had offered a bit more resistance.  Both teams with an easy pathway to Saturday evening, starters resting relatively early. 

Go TITANS -- go for the Sweet Sixteen! 

IWU'70

[iwu70]

Congratulations to Kendall Sosa on reaching 1,000 career points as a Titan, in her junior year.  Riley Brovelli working her way up the double-doubles chart for a career too.  No one will ever catch Cristina Solari's record.

Keep it rolling, Titans, on Saturday evening @DeVos.  Should be a great crowd, a wonderful atmosphere for D3 women's basketball national tournament play.

'70

[Mr. Ypsi]

Gonna be tough tomorrow.  Hope is ranked #1 and is undefeated.  In 2012, the Hope men were ranked #1 and undefeated against D3 (23 straight wins overall).  In an epic game, IWU won in double OT.

I plan to spend tomorrow chanting "2012...2012...2012", and hoping that lightning can strike twice!

[iwu70]

UW-Whitewater and Bethel losing . . .  interesting.

'70

[iwu70]

Ypsi, you should drive over to Holland, to Devos, and give the TITANS your mojo! 

Good game against Berea.  Our Titans hitting on all cylinders just now.  Should be a good one vs. Hope.

'70

[iwumichigander]

Hope all over Grove City.  No contest really.  GC may not get to 20 points for 4Qs.

Hope seems long and tall, but not particularly fast. Hope the TITANS style of pace and pressure will work against them.  They've probably not faced much of this style of play in their season, with so so many blowouts, save for the close games with Trine.

Should be interesting.  I wish Grove City had offered a bit more resistance.  Both teams with an easy pathway to Saturday evening, starters resting relatively early. 

Go TITANS -- go for the Sweet Sixteen! 

IWU'70

Hope long and tall but not particularly fast - I agree.  Hope seemed to have trouble when the pace picked up.  Maybe Hope played to level of competition but I was not impressed  with Hope tonight.

[iwu70]

It will be very interesting to see how HOPE handles IWU's pressure and pace.  I think the TITANS need to battle hard, keep the rebounding battle about even, then press the pace up and down, run them ragged, big time.  Time for Sam Munroe to be streaking up and down the floor, finding Brovelli low and shooters all around the perimeter, Shanks putting some fouls on some of Hope's bigs early on.  Hope seems to play quite a few players, so wondering if in a tougher match-up, they will surely shorten their rotation, even better for a "run them ragged" type of game.  Hope seems to have several players who look a lot like Jill Berg, so can do damage down low. 

I hope Sosa stays hot.  She's been truly marvelous the last 4-5 games for IWU.  (Sorry Lowis and Eck seem to be sidelined.  We could have used Lowis' rebounding and Eck's length on D, scoring on O.).  Kaia Bowen has played some quality minutes.  Need more from Heller.  As all year, Titan starters have to play lots of minutes, so have to stay out of foul trouble, esp. Brovelli.  Should be a good one.  Save for Trine, Hope has not really been challenged much all year. So here it comes . . .

A big crowd, a wonderful home court atmosphere . . . perfect for a big upset by the visiting TITANS. 

IWU'70

[Titan Q]

Illinois Wesleyan (20-8, 11-5 CCIW) vs #1-Hope (28-0, 16-0 MIAA), Saturday 3/7, 7:00pm ET, at Hope College...

Illinois Wesleyan (20-8, 11-5 CCIW)
G - Sam Munroe, 5-7 Jr. 8.9 ppg, 3.1 ppg, 2.8 rpg
G - Brooke Lansford, 5-7 So. 9.4 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 2.8 apg
G - Sydney Shanks, 5-9 Sr.  13.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 2.7 apg
G - Kendall Sosa, 5-9 Jr.  20.7 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 2.5 apg
F - Riley Brovelli, 6-1 Jr.  9.6 ppg, 8.9 rpg, 2.1 apg

#1-Hope (28-0, 16-0 MIAA)
G - Kasey DeSmit, 5-6 So.  4.7 ppg, 1.4 rpg, 1.7 apg 
G - Lauren Newman, 5-7 Jr.  7.8 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 1.5 apg
G - Kenedy Schoonveld, 5-10 Jr.  10.0 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 1.6 apg
F - Ashleigh Thomas, 6-2 Jr.  5.2 ppg, 3.7 rpg
F - Olivia Voskuil, 6-3 Jr. 9.1 ppg, 4.4 rpg


Links
IWU Game Notes - https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/iwusports.com/documents/2020/3/4/Game28_NCAATournament_Berea.pdf

Pantagraph - https://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/illinois-wesleyan/kendall-sosa-tops--point-career-mark-as-illinois-wesleyan/article_e4c61ca2-db88-5e75-8f06-d92b492f9c55.html

Hope 3/6 postgame - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzclhawnFMg

Video - https://www.youtube.com/hopeathletics

WEXG Radio - https://radio.securenetsystems.net/v5/index.cfm?stationCallSign=WWHP

Live stats - https://www.iwusports.com/sidearmstats/wbball/summary

[Roundball999]

Hope's Coach Morehouse on playing IWU:

"They play incredibly hard," Morehouse said. "They're a tough matchup because they play probably three point guards in their starting lineup, and they can all score it. I think in their league final, they had one kid with 26 (points) and one kid with 25. So they're very, very talented. The (Sosa) kid is one of the better players in the United States."

[Dutchfan]

Illinois Wesleyan (20-8, 11-5 CCIW) vs #1-Hope (28-0, 16-0 MIAA), Saturday 3/7, 7:00pm ET, at Hope College...

Illinois Wesleyan (20-8, 11-5 CCIW)
G - Sam Munroe, 5-7 Jr. 8.9 ppg, 3.1 ppg, 2.8 rpg
G - Brooke Lansford, 5-7 So. 9.4 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 2.8 apg
G - Sydney Shanks, 5-9 Sr.  13.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 2.7 apg
G - Kendall Sosa, 5-9 Jr.  20.7 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 2.5 apg
F - Riley Brovelli, 6-1 Jr.  9.6 ppg, 8.9 rpg, 2.1 apg

#1-Hope (28-0, 16-0 MIAA)
G - Kasey DeSmit, 5-6 So.  4.7 ppg, 1.4 rpg, 1.7 apg 
G - Lauren Newman, 5-7 Jr.  7.8 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 1.5 apg
G - Kenedy Schoonveld, 5-10 Jr.  10.0 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 1.6 apg
F - Ashleigh Thomas, 6-2 Jr.  5.2 ppg, 3.7 rpg
F - Olivia Voskuil, 6-3 Jr. 9.1 ppg, 4.4 rpg


Links
IWU Game Notes - https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/iwusports.com/documents/2020/3/4/Game28_NCAATournament_Berea.pdf

Pantagraph - https://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/illinois-wesleyan/kendall-sosa-tops--point-career-mark-as-illinois-wesleyan/article_e4c61ca2-db88-5e75-8f06-d92b492f9c55.html

Hope 3/6 postgame - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzclhawnFMg

Video - https://www.youtube.com/hopeathletics

WEXG Radio - https://radio.securenetsystems.net/v5/index.cfm?stationCallSign=WWHP

Live stats - https://www.iwusports.com/sidearmstats/wbball/summary

What these stats do not show are Minutes Per Game and Bench Strength, especially on defense.

[Roundball999]

[/quote]  Hope seemed to have trouble when the pace picked up.  [/quote]

Interesting... the Grove City coach said post game "we weren't ready to play at that pace"