WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[RogK]

Today's pair of victories leaves the composite nonconference record at 40-39.
Elmhurst and North Central could still replace one cancelled game each.

[Gregory Sager]

An earlier-than-expected return for Bailey Coffman isn't good news for the eight teams that don't call Decatur home.

[RogK]

Congrats to Kate Christian, new CCIW player of the week(s) :
https://cciw.org/news/2023/1/2/womens-basketball-cciw-names-carrolls-christian-student-athlete-of-the-week.aspx
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[iwu70]

Congrats to Kate Christian on her weekly honor.

Yes, having Coffman back is big for the Big Blue.  Any sign of Annie Tate or Jayla Johnson?   

Here comes the meat of the CCIW race . . .

'70

[Gregory Sager]

North Park is seriously lacking size this season, but Annie Radenkovich and her coaching staff are working hard to rectify that for 2023-24. Two bigs, 6'0 Caroline Long of Russiaville (IN) Western and 5'10 Brooke Panush of Lemont, have already tweeted that they've committed to NPU.

[iwu70]

4th D3hoops Poll:  No CCIW team mentioned at all, even in ORVs.

A down year.  Likely only the CCIW Tournament Champion gets a bid.

'70

[RogK]

I'm surprised that Millikin didn't get any votes. But, I don't know the "instead of whom" answer. I'm way too lazy to research the probably 70 or 80 teams that deserve some consideration.
As for the NCAA tourney, bear in mind that it's for 64 teams, not 25. I'd say it's very likely that the CCIW gets at least 2.
We should also note that Strength of Schedule takes shape steadily and gradually during the entire season.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

While UWSP and WashU are not bad losses, they're not losses a Top 25 team should have. That, coupled with no real signature wins, it's not too hard to see why they're being left out.

[iwu70]

Looks like a one bid year to me.  Unless an upset in the Tournament final . . . then MU and another might get in.

IWU needs a win badly, tonight vs NPU in Chicago.

'70

[GoPerry]

While UWSP and WashU are not bad losses, they're not losses a Top 25 team should have. That, coupled with no real signature wins, it's not too hard to see why they're being left out.

This is pretty much what I was thinking also Ryan.  From watching them, I think they are pretty good and worthy of some consideration.  But from a record standpoint, they've pretty much won all the games they're supposed to win and nothing more really. 

[lmitzel]

Wheaton had a 17-0 run that stretched across halftime and that was the difference in an 81-65 Thunder victory at the hangar tonight. The Cardinals got it to single digits a couple times, but a late 9-0 Thunder run sealed the deal.

Anna Fernandez: 18 pts, 5 reb
Annika Richardson: 14 pts, 14 reb
Caroline Sikkink: 11 pts, 7 reb

Natalie Stavropolous: 18 pts, 4 ast
Megan Duffy: 11 pts, 4 ast
Abby Davidson: 8 pts, 9 reb

Alli Pearson was back tonight. Apparently she broke her nose over break and was on a pitch count tonight. She scored 9, bringing her career total to 972.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 63
Illinois Wesleyan 58

Esther Miller: 19 pts, 7 rebs
Victoria Perry: 13 pts
Elisha Dunlap: 8 rebs

Katelyn Heller: 22 pts
Mallory Powers: 13 pts
Lauren Huber: 12 pts, 12 rebs

In a back-and-forth contest dominated by the defenses of both teams, in which neither team could push the lead out beyond two possessions (aside from a very brief eight-point lead for North Park in the first quarter), NPU came up bigger in the last two minutes, with an inspired-effort putback basket by Chantel Hairston in the waning seconds being the signature play in the Vikings win.

As long as the Vikings keep playing defense like this they can compete in this league, even despite their offensive shortcomings.

Illinois Wesleyan is a mystery. How did what is essentially the same lineup that was atop the league a year ago become so ordinary?

[Gregory Sager]

Carroll led Carthage by 14 points with six minutes left in Kenosha, but had to hang on at the end for a 70-67 road win over the stubborn Firebirds. Olivia Rangel paced the Pios with 20 points, and she was joined in double figures by Brooke Foster with 15. Marianna Morrissey had 18, Ayanna Ester contribued 11, and Elena Knebel chipped in 10 in the losing effort for Carthage.

The game at Faganel got extremely ugly, as Augustana steamrollered Elmhurst to the tune of 91-40. Emma Berg (15), Macy Beinborn (13), Gabby Loiz (12), and Corey Whitlock(11) all hit double figures for Augie, as Mark Beinborn kept all five of his starters under 20 minutes apiece. Of the fourteen players who saw the floor for the Rock Islanders, thirteen of them scored. No Elmhurst player reached double figures, as the 'jays shot under 25% from the field, got outrebounded by a dozen, and turned the ball over 31 times.

[iwu70]

Greg, I agree with you about IWU right now . . . seems like a sophomore slump or something.  They are not playing anywhere near their potential and obvious talent level.  Too many TOs, even some dubious coaching decisions on the rotation.  Heller had a good game, but there's a lot of inconsistency there.  And, Powers and Palmer are way down from the previous year.   Huber can't do it all . . .   

Your team played tough D last night.  IWU continues to find ways not to finish games and to let them slip away.  Now a four game losing streak.  Perhaps they will find a way to make the CCIW tournament and then find their mojo late in the season, but with a very poor, likely .500 record.  I'm not optimistic at all from recent performances.


IWU'70 

[Gregory Sager]

Huber missed her fair share of bunnies last night. And although Heller was IWU's offensive mainstay, it took her 24 shots to get her 22 points, which is not good.

Of course, NPU's not setting the world on fire at the offensive end, either. The Vikings keep blowing a discouraging number of shots around the basket, and their lack of success from beyond the arc has made all of them aside from Victoria Perry tentative about shooting out there even when open. VP has never met a shot she didn't like, which is a blessing that is also occasionally a curse.

North Park's best offensive weapon continues to be undersized forward Esther Miller, whose high basketball IQ and bulldog attitude get her lots of looks inside that players her size shouldn't get. She had 18 of North Park's 31 points at the half on 9-12 shooting, and Mia Smith obvously told the Titans at halftime, "Enough's enough as far as Miller is concerned." She assigned a double team (and even the occasional triple team) to take Miller out of the game at the offensive end. It obviously worked, as Esther scored only a single point in the second half. But she was a most effective decoy, as that double-teaming opened up a lot of driving lanes for VP, Aaliyah Parker-Fox, Chantel Hairston, and Kathryn Keehn.

Overall, a nice victory ... but the lack of offensive production by the Vikings leads me to think that North Park isn't likely to threaten the league's two obvious favorites, Millikin and Carroll. At the moment I foresee the rest of the league jockeying for position behind those two, with Wheaton and Augustana the best bets to secure first-round home games in the CCIW tourney and North Central and Elmhurst the two teams most unlikely to secure a tourney spot.