WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

Ypsi, I hope you are going to see our Titans in MI. this weekend.  At Alma in a few minutes . . . and at Calvin tomorrow afternoon 3 p.m.   If you get a chance, really a great group, a strong team this year.  They are 3-0 so far with that big win in the Sikma Hall of Fame Invitational championship game over UW Oshkosh, 65-63.  That was a GREAT game with two really strong, top-25 teams.  Some think even top-10 or top-5 teams. 

Hope you are well. . . 

All best,   Mark

iwu'70

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 58
Rose-Hulman 48

Jayla Johnson: 16 pts, 7 rebs, 3:1 a:to, 3 stls
Emily Czuhajewski: 12 pts
Lauren Lee: 12 pts
Chantel Hairston: 6 rebs, 4:1 a:to

It was competitive until NPU managed to get low-double-digits separation down the stretch. It shouldn't have taken the Vikings that long to put the game away, quite frankly, but they were an awful 9-20 from the FT line.

The Vikings will face Bethany Lutheran tomorrow afternoon. BLC blew past Elmhurst in the second half of the early game here at the North Park Invitational.

[Jester1390]

Thought north played very good defense.  Will say I think it was 24 fouls to 13. Including a horrible charge call in the circle and then another horrible
Moving screen but now I'm on the edge of being a whiner.  The better team won but it would be interesting if the game was at rose   Lastly when the game separated coach had his best 3 bigs on the bench with fouls trouble he had to play one of them. North like a good team took advantage of the weaker lineup and separated

One last thing. Players your are not allowed to say the f bomb on the court even celebrating that is why she got the technical. Her remark damn we swear all the time on d-1 he mom pointed out your not in d-1 anymore

Good game by Bethany after losing their starting point guard just went on a roll over elmhurst

[GoPerry]

Wheaton over Chapman 65-50

Annie Tate 28 pts, 14 rebs
Ellie Cassell 6 pts, 11 rebs

A little better offensively as Tate continues to carry the load.  It was only a 4 point game at 45-41 with 7 minutes remaining.  But Wheaton scored 8 unanswered to extend and pulled away from there.  Wheaton's height advantage was evident in the huge rebounding advantage of 49-26.  Once again Wheaton struggled from three, 1/13.

The Thunder will play Univ of Redlands tomorrow who beat Willamette by the same 65-50 score.

[iwu70]

#18 UW Whitewater at IWU this evening, 6 p.m. @The Shirk.  I'm looking forward to seeing this edition of the Titans for the first time this season in person.  The freshmen playing a major part for IWU . . .

Starters:  Lansford, Eck, Bowen, Heller and Carlson (at least so far).

GO TITANS!

IWU'70

[lmitzel]

NCC avenged its loss to the Concordia in Wisconsin by taking out the one in Chicago 68-57 earlier today.

I spent part of this past shortened season advocating for IxChel Leeuwenburgh to make the All-CCIW team, and she put on a show today with 22 points, 16 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 steals, and 2 blocks. Mitrese Smith scored 20, and Allison Pearson chipped in 13 and 9 rebounds. Jaylene Wade paced Concordia with 20 points.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 74
Bethany Lutheran 67

Emily Czuhajewski: 26 pts
Jayla Johnson: 21 pts, 6 rebs, 9 stls
Lauren Lee: 11 pts, 3 stls
Chantel Hairston: 10 pts, 8 rebs
Esther Miller: 3 stls
Josie Summerville: 3:0 a:to

Once again NPU wore down an opponent with strong defense, as the Vikings again created separation down the stretch and outlasted stubborn opposition. NPU pilfered 20 steals this afternoon,which more than made up for a glaring rebounding deficit.

I never expect anything from a UMAC opponent in any sport, but Bethany Lutheran (4-2) is surprisingly good. BLC, which beat #17 UW-Oshkosh last week, has a 6'0 center named Hanna Geistfeld who is a big girl but is quicker than a cat, and she has uncommonly good touch around the basket and a firm grasp of how to score with her back to the basket. She would excel in the CCIW. Unfortunately for her, the other Bethany Lutheran players couldn't make the Vikings pay when they double-teamed her down low, and that plus the lightning-fast hands of Jayla Johnson made Geistfeld's life miserable in the fourth quarter. She ended up fouling out in the final minute with a near triple-double of 30 points, 11 rebounds ... and nine turnovers.

Czuhajewski's 26 points today are a career high. She has really become a complete player. Her driving game, combined with Lauren Lee knocking down treys as well, is opening up a lot more good looks from beyond the arc than Czuhajewski was getting in previous seasons.

North Park (3-1) won't play again until the Vikings host Olivet next Saturday.

[iwu70]

IWU got thrashed tonight by UW Whitewater, 75-43. 

A very poor start, very poor shooting,  by the Titans, and clearly outrebounded too, by the taller, more physical Warhawks, so really not much to say about this one.  I think Brook Lansford is going to have a very long year as IWU PG, as she's really more comfortable playing the 2 or 3.  IWU just doesn't have the offensive talent that they've had in recent years, so could be a very long year. 

The one bright spot in watching this team tonight, admittedly against a very strong opponent in #18 WW, is the play of freshman Lauren Huber . . . she played well, likely was the top scorer for IWU.  With a year or two experience, she could be one of the top players in the CCIW.  IMHO.

IWU'70

[Gregory Sager]

North Park's CCIW cohort in the NPU Tip-Off Tourney this weekend was Elmhurst, and, boy, do the Bluejays look like a mess. They fell to 0-6 on the year by dropping a 17-point decision to Bethany Lutheran yesterday and a 36-point loss to Rose-Hulman today. Aside from a one-point loss to St. Mary's (IN), a team that has lost by double digits to the three other CCIW teams it's played thus far, the closest that the Bluejays have come to an opponent was yesterday's 17-point defeat. They're giving up 25.5 turnovers per game, which opponents are scoring off of to the tune of 27.5 points per game.

Tethnie Carillo's team consists almost exclusively of freshmen and sophomores. The one truly experienced player she has, grad student Marissa Urso, has missed the the last three games, whether because of injury, illness, or whatever.

They are seriously going to struggle in CCIW play this season.

[GoPerry]

Wheaton over Redlands 69-57 in a really good early season test.

This was a close and tight game for three quarters until Wheaton went on a tear and outscored the Bulldogs 28-9 in the 4th quarter.  Hannah Swider was having a nothing game until she came alive for 10 pts in the final 10 minutes including 2 treys.  Give the Wheaton ladies a lot of credit after they went down by 7 in the 4th.  They remained tough and made some plays to get back into it before extending. 

Annie Tate led all scorers with 22 puts along with 9 boards.  Ellie Cassell had a nice 12 pts, 8 reb game while Swider had the same stat line.  Redlands looked pretty good to me and I think this will end up being a quality win for Wheaton.

[Captain_Joe08]

ORV Wisconsin Lutheran used outscored #22 Millikin in the second half on their way to a 66-56 win in Chicago. Big Blue have lost three straight against tough competition recently.

[Gregory Sager]

NCC avenged its loss to the Concordia in Wisconsin by taking out the one in Chicago 68-57 earlier today.

Hmph. It really annoys me that the local Concordia advertises itself as being "Concordia University Chicago," right down to the school's logo and URL. Newsflash, Cougars: Your school is in River Forest, not Chicago. In fact, that's what your school used to be called: Concordia University River Forest, which lent itself to the euphonious acronym "CURF".

The school's website really plays this up, too: It has all of the "close proximity to a world-class city" stuff that you see in the online and printed literature of all of the local suburban colleges and universities, which is all well and good and is to be expected. But the website definitely sells River Forest. Under the "Concordia Experience" dropdown "Life in Chicago", the headline is, "Explore a world-class city while working towards your calling. Take advantage of the educational, professional and cultural opportunities downtown Chicago has to offer, while enjoying the benefits of living in a upscale suburb [sic]." Right below that is another dropdown, "Surrounding Community", with this headline: "Step beyond campus to find unique offerings in the surrounding neighborhoods. As a student, you will enjoy the safe, charming neighborhood of River Forest that immediately surrounds Concordia University Chicago. The local communities are full of excellent restaurants, stores, entertainment facilities, public parks and many other places of interest."

Yeah, let's have our cake and eat it, too, eh? The fact of the matter is that River Forest -- which is, indeed, a beautiful and tree-lined suburb (I enjoy walking through it whenever I go to a game at Concordia or Dominican) -- is two suburbs distant from the city. To the immediate east of River Forest is Oak Park, and on the other side of Oak Park is Chicago's Austin neighborhood, one of the the most economically distressed and violent communities in the entire city. You won't find a sharper contrast anywhere in the midwest in terms of adjacent haves and have-nots than Oak Park and Austin.

I get that truth in advertising is not necessarily a thing with colleges and universities, which are in the business of selling themselves to prospective students. But it's galling that a school located in a leafy, upper-middle-class suburb (which it promotes from a campus-lifestyle point of view) bills itself generically as being a Chicago school -- especially since the nearest part of the city, a mile and a half to the east, is a place that no school would dare promote on its website.

[Gregory Sager]

Despite the rough weekend that Millikin had on the South Side and the continued implosion of Elmhurst up at the opposite end of the city, the CCIW is still doing a tidy 27-16 (.628) business in non-con play thus far this season.

[Gregory Sager]

Incidentally, congratulations to Jayla Johnson. Her nine steals against Bethany Lutheran yesterday set a new NPU single-game record, breaking the old record of eight steals, which was reached six times by five different players through the years (one of whom was Jayla herself).

[RogK]

I fully agree that CUC should be Concordia Univ River Forest.
Augie had an interesting win, judging by the box score :
AUG 73, Anderson 65.
Anderson's 5'5" senior Lexi Dellinger poured in 37 pts via 6/9 3FGs, 5/8 2FGs and 9/9 FTs. That'll be among the best shooting we'll see this season in the continental U.S.
Augie prevailed thanks to another very good performance by Gabriela Loiz, who scored 20 (0/1 3FG, 7/9 2FG, 6/7 FT) and grabbed 9 rebs.