WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[RogK]

Congrats to the new CCIW player of the week, Elyce Knudsen !
https://cciw.org/news/2023/1/16/womens-basketball-cciw-names-millikins-knudsen-student-athlete-of-the-week.aspx
She may attain D3Hoops Team of the Week honors too ... we'll see.

[iwu70]

Congrats to Elyce Knudsen again:  Player of the Week.  She has a complete game . . .  she was clearly the difference in the IWU 9-point loss down in Decatur recently. 

IWU has a bye this Wednesday, then an important game up at Wheaton.  Another very tough match-up for the Titans.  They probably can use the rest, allow more time for Powers to get healthy, get out of the boot.  I doubt she will play next Saturday at Wheaton.

IWU'70

[iwu70]

Knudsen and Huber now both three-time winners this season of the weekly CCIW honor.   

'70

[Gregory Sager]

Carthage 56
North Park 42

Chantel Hairston: 13 pts, 10 rebs

Lauren Knight: 13 pts
Marianna Morrissey: 10 pts, 9 rebs, 5 stls

Not nearly as dismal a performance by the Vikings as they had on Saturday, but the NPU offense continues to have successful possessions be few and far between, shooting under 30% from the field yet again. Carthage took advantage of a hot streak in the third quarter to push a 33-29 lead out to 47-29, and although the Vikings would get that bulge down to eight the Firebirds were never really threatened.

[lmitzel]

NCC's good quarter tonight was the third quarter. Augie led by 10 at halftime and was ahead for pretty much the entire first half, but the Cardinals dug into the deficit to trail by five going into the final stanza. But a 2-17 line for the quarter (their first basket didn't come until over four minutes in) allowed the Vikings to slowly pull away for a 71-51 victory.

Gabriela Loiz: 18 pts, 6 reb, 4 ast
Macy Beinborn: 15 pts (including a pair of dagger three's), 8 reb
Presley Case: 9 pts, 6 reb

Natalie Stavropolous: 13 pts, 4 ast
Grace Keiffer: 12 pts, 4 ast, 3 stl
Megan Duffy: 6 pts, 5 reb, 4 ast

At 1-7 halfway through the Gauntlet... I'm not really optimistic about playing deep in February. I do think the core of the future is starting to establish itself. Megan Duffy has a good inside-out game and is really tough. Grace Keiffer has great instincts and amazing hands on the defensive side (I asked assistant SID Nick Osterloo late in tonight's game how many steals she had and was surprised it was only 3; she seemed like she had way more with how much havoc she was wreaking). To be sixth in the league in steals as a freshman... pretty good. And then Abby Davidson, while she needs to polish her offensive game and rebounding a little bit, is currently second in the league in blocks. Jamie Cuny she is not, but there's some potential here in the future.

[lmitzel]

Our other two scores tonight:

Carroll 71, Wheaton 49 at King
Millikin 94, Elmhurst 43 at Faganel

[RogK]

each team has now played the other 8 once, although not all 4 home and 4 away
W-L
8-0 Millikin
6-2 Carroll
5-3 Augustana , Wheaton
4-4 Carthage , Illinois Wesleyan
3-5 North Park
1-7 North Central
0-8 Elmhurst

[Gregory Sager]

North Central 62
North Park 55

Victoria Perry: 18 pts
Chantel Hairston: 7 rebs, 3 stls
Esther Miller: 3 stls

Mitrese Smith: 19 pts, 8 rebs
Natalie Stavropoulos: 16 pts, 6 rebs
Allison Pearson: 11 pts, 7 rebs, 3 stls

Same old script played out again. Vikings couldn't make a shot to save their lives, Esther Miller gets into early foul trouble and spends a huge chunk of the game on the bench, and NPU, unable to defend the low post in Miller's absence, gets eaten up by the opposing big.

There were two deviations from the script today, though. First was the magnitude of the problem. North Park's shooting was so awful in the second quarter, and North Central's sensible decision to attack NPU's weak spot so effective, that the Cardinals broke open a close game with a 15-point run and outscored NPU by a whopping 22-6 in the second quarter. North Park didn't score in that stanza until there was two minutes and change left on the clock.

It was more of the same for the better part of the third quarter, as NCC moved out to a 16-point lead. At that point, however, the Vikings caught fire, as Victoria Perry -- who sat out the entire first quarter, I'm assuming for disciplinary reasons -- took over the game with some help from Aaliyah Parker-Fox, Lauren Lee, and Chantel Hairston, and NPU's fortunes began to turn around. The Vikings finally caught NCC at 51-51 with 2:58 to go on a Lee trey, and it looked like the Vikings would find a way to win after all. But Megan Duffy, who had heretofore been nothing more than a cipher in this game, suddenly took it over, scoring the next five points. NPU would close to 56-55, but could not get any more shots to drop from that point onward, and the Cards won it at the free-throw line.

A disappointing loss, but NCC clearly deserved the victory. The Cardinals outplayed the Vikings for the lion's share of the game.

Now North Park has to play out the second round-robin on the road, as only one of the seven remaining games for the Vikings this season will be at home.

[iwu70]

IWU gets a key win on the road, IWU 56 - Wheaton 54.

Wheaton has some great young players, esp. Oliver.

For Wheaton:
Oliver 20
Fernandez 9 and 10
Hermanson 9
Richardson 8 and 10

For IWU, the Lauren Huber show:

Huber 21 and 16, with 2 treys
Knutson 11 and 8
Heller 10
White 10, 2-5 from three

IWU almost found another way to lose in the last minute, but just held on, Oliver missing a game winning three for Wheaton with 5 seconds to go.  Again, way too many TOs, stupid cross court passes, driving into traffic, just not playing all that smartly.  But, in the CCIW on the road, a win is a WIN!  IWU climbing back up the standings. 

IWU now 5-4 in the conference.  Hosting NPU at home at the Shirk on Wednesday.

'70

[GoPerry]

Illinois Wesleyan 56
Wheaton  54

After a truly depressing first quarter for both teams ended 10-4 Titans, scoring came a little easier the rest of the way.  It was pretty tight the rest of the way with IWU finally getting out to a 7 point lead, 54-47 with about 3 mins late.   But the Thunder fought back, IWU made some pretty bad turnovers, and a Kate Oliver three with 10 seconds left tied it. But Lauren Huber made a contested layup with 5 seconds left to get the win.

Huber finished with 21 pts, 16 rebs and pretty much led her team to the win.  Kate Oliver once again had a 2nd big game vs IWU with 20 pts, 6 rebs but less efficiently.

Despite the win, Mia Smith's team looks more beaten down and undisciplined than teams of recent vintage. 

[iwu70]

GoPerry, I agree with you that the Titans are more undisciplined, sometimes playing too fast, leading to TOs, esp. Heller.  Lauren Huber is a great player, but does drive into traffic too often.  She was 21 and 16 tonight and made many other contributions in this win, not least the two treys she hit when unguarded on the perimeter.  For Huber and Heller, it would often be better to kick out and let Palmer finally find her range with better looks from three.  So far this season, she's not hitting a good percentage and has had trouble finding open looks.  The Titans need to find a way to remedy this for her.  Powers will be out for several more games, still in a boot, with a broken bone in her lower left leg.  So, White and Carlson will be getting more minutes, more starts.   Both played pretty well tonight against Wheaton, esp. White.  If the Titans can cut down on their TOs, on their bad passes and stupid cross court passes (like tonight) they might even have a chance to challenge Millikin at home.  No matter how you look at it, though, MU will win the regular season by 4-5 games, it appears.  Everyone else now fighting it out for second and beyond.  MU might even go 16-0. 

IWU'70

[RogK]

While I couldn't argue against either Elyce Knudsen or Lauren Huber for player of the week, I'd also nominate Bailey Coffman.
All she did was score 37 in 37:00, along with 6 rebs and 4 steals.
Her shooting was excellent : 5/11 3FGs, 5/6 2FGs and 12/15 FTs.

[iwu70]

Congrats to Lauren Huber on her 4th Player of the Week honor this season.

Yes, many other good players, worthy recipients out there this week.   MU looks unstoppable now with Knudsen playing so well always and now Coffman, too.   They have a real shot at going 16-0 in regular season league play.   I guess it's back to The GRIZ for the CCIW tournament!    (You all know how much I love the place!   LOL ).

IWU hosting NPU this Wednesday at The Shirk.   The Titans need to keep improving, keep climbing up the league standings.  Reduce TOs, quit doing stupid things, and play more under control, whilst still playing fast.  Powers still out, so White and Carlson getting more minutes, more starts. 

IWU'70

[RogK]

my congrats also, to Lauren Huber, new CCIW player of the week
https://cciw.org/news/2023/1/23/womens-basketball-iwus-huber-lands-fourth-cciw-weekly-award.aspx
an example of her superb athleticism from the Saturday game at Wheaton : with multiple players attempting to grab a loose ball in the lane, she uses about 1.7 seconds to grab it, jump, do a mid-air 180 and flip the ball neatly into the hoop (yes, it was at the Titans' offensive end of the court)

[Gregory Sager]

Millikin is still sitting in the middle of the D3hoops.com Top 25's grab bag of leftovers, aka the ORV category, with 18 points. To no one's great surprise, no other CCIW teams appeared on a ballot this week.

https://www.d3hoops.com/top25/index