WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[RogK]

IWU defeated Carroll 65-59.
A nice performance by Sawyer White including 8 steals, 8 assists and 15 pts. The Titans also got 16 pts from Kate Palmer and 14 from Caite Knutson, while Mallory Powers led with 10 rebs.
IWU was without Ava Bardic and Lauren Huber.
Carroll got 19 pts from Emilie Wizner (excellent shooting = she missed only 4 shots) and 13 from Natalie Gricius.
IWU limited Olivia Rangel to 2 pts in over 33 minutes. I think the rest of the CCIW will be interested in just how the heck do you do that. She came into the game averaging 18.9.
addendum - - this summary says Kate Palmer played great defense on Rangel :
https://www.iwusports.com/news/2023/12/2/womens-basketball-womens-hoops-bests-carroll-in-defensive-battle.aspx
-

[RogK]

Our Gregory Sager was indeed installed into the North Park Hall of Fame yesterday. Congrats again to Greg!
Visiting hours are Tuesdays 1-4pm and Fridays 7-9am. If any of you go to visit him there, I'm sure he'd appreciate some chocolate-covered pistachios or almonds. Use your own judgment regarding beverages.
Years before arriving at North Park, Greg was a child progeny.
He is now well-known for broadcasting a variety of sports with ease. But he is also well-versed in a vast quantity of other subjects.
For example, he taught me everything I know about agriculture in Tajikistan.
And, when I thought Denzel Washington was a suburb of Seattle, Greg was quick to correct me.
One reason for Greg's long success at North Park is that about 20 years ago, I was able to discourage him from moving to far north suburban Fox Lake. He was planning to open a business called Fox Lake Fake Locks.
No more than a month after that, I successfully dissuaded him from leaving town to start an international lobbying group for the purpose of changing the spelling of "lisp" to "lithp."
We are glad he opted to stay with North Park.

[RogK]

Elyce Knudsen is the new CCIW Player of the Week for her superb play in Millikin's win over Augie.
She made 6/9 3FGs, 8/9 2FGs and 2/2 FT for 36 pts in 30 min. Also had 3 steals, 5 assists and 8 rebs.
Congrats to her!

[GoPerry]

IWU 74
Wheaton 49

14 1st half turnovers by the Thunder took them out of the game in the first 20 mins.  Pretty embarassing for the home fans.  The Titan press was unleashed on a team who hates taking care of the ball - disaster recipe.

Annie Tate with 18 pts, 6 rebs but no support.

IWU playing without Lauren Huber who seems to be injured.

[lmitzel]

NCC 53
Carthage 46

North Central never trailed tonight, using an early 8-0 run to take control of the game. While the Firebirds tied it at one point in the third, the Cardinals forged back ahead by the end of the frame and were able to close it out in the fourth.

Jocelyn Trotter: 17 pts, 5 reb
Megan McClure: 9 pts, 9 reb
Josylin Simmons-Doxie: 7 pts, 4 reb, 4 ast, 3 stl
Grace Keiffer: 4 stl

Marianna Morrissey: 15 pts, 12 reb
Lauren Knight: 14 pts, 6 reb
Grace Cord: 9 pts, 7 reb
Addison Ebeling: 10 reb

Elle Sutter made her return to action tonight on a pitch count; she had 2 points and 3 rebounds in 12 minutes.

On a night where no one knew how media timeouts worked (we took one early in the third off a Carthage timeout by rule, then took another on an NCC one in the fourth for some reason, then didn't do the under 5 timeout) and we had an inadvertent whistle in the final minute when Maggie McCloskey-Bax told the official by the bench that she wanted a timeout off a Carthage free throw, which was attempted to be granted even though neither team technically had possession, but they apparently ruled that the Firebirds did and gave them the ball underneath... only for this to be compounded by a jump ball a few seconds later (Carthage had the arrow, which prompted more confusion).

Truly... this was one of the games of all time.

[lmitzel]

Also, I am officially starting the campaign for Jocelyn Trotter for CCIW Newcomer of the Year.

Through 9 games so far this season: 8.6 PPG (56/38/40 splits), 6.1 RPG, 1.4 SPG

Just in 3 CCIW games: 15.0 PPG (78/100/50), 5.3 RPG, 2 SPG

Talking with Maggie McCloskey-Bax postgame... we don't know what her ceiling is yet, but we're watching a special player blossom before our eyes.

[Gregory Sager]

Carroll 77
North Park 51

Aliyah Hershberger: 17 pts

Emilie Wizner: 21 pts (4-4 trey)
Natalie Gricius: 13 pts
Lauren Soyke: 12 pts
Olivia Rangel: 10 pts, 13 rebs
Natalie Palzkill: 6 rebs, 5 stls

You'd never know it by looking at the final score, but North Park led for all but 47 seconds in the first half; the first 00:16 of the first quarter and the last 00:31 of the second quarter marked the only time allotments in which NPU did not have the better of it. But that was in large part because Carroll appeared to be shooting the ball while wearing blindfolds, as the Pioneers were doing everything else right -- they were dominating the boards, their press was forcing turnovers, and Natalie Palzkill was totally blanketing the best offensive weapon the Vikings have, Victoria Perry. The Vikings actually led by nine with 2:35 to go in the half, 25-16, basically because they could put the ball in the net every now and then and Carroll simply couldn't.

But that state of affairs couldn't last forever. The Pioneers erupted for a 13-2 run in that final 2:35 to go into the locker room up by two, in what in retrospect was a perfect foreshadowing of the third quarter. Stripped of their blindfolds, the Pioneers shot an absurd 13-19 (.684) from the field in the third stanza while continuing to grab all of the rebounds at both ends of the floor and forcing turnover after turnover with their press. It was a 33-10 quarter, and that was all she wrote.

The lone bright spot was freshman guard Aliyah Hershberger, who got her 17 points on 7-9 shooting from the field to set a new high for her young career.

[RogK]

GoPerry, did you see Lauren Huber at Wheaton? If so, did you determine if her injury may be leg/foot, arm/hand?
Hopefully she can return to action soon. I rate her as the 2nd best player in the CCIW (Elyce Knudsen #1 of course).

[scottiedawg]

I heard she was in a walking boot.    No inside information from me--so zero clue about the severity.

[RogK]

        conf W-L    nonconf W-L
AUG    1-1              4-3
CRL     2-1              4-2
CTG    1-2              4-2
ELM    1-2              3-2
IWU    3-0              5-2
MIL     2-0              6-0
NCC    1-2              3-3
NPU    0-2              2-4
WHE    1-2             5-0
                            36-18

[GoPerry]

GoPerry, did you see Lauren Huber at Wheaton? If so, did you determine if her injury may be leg/foot, arm/hand?
Hopefully she can return to action soon. I rate her as the 2nd best player in the CCIW (Elyce Knudsen #1 of course).

RogK - I did not attend the game.  But I immediately noticed on the livestream that she wasn't on the floor and wondered why.  Some time during the 1q, the student announcers confirmed that she was not playing due to injury but they gave no details.

[Gregory Sager]

Carroll hands #9 Millikin its first loss of the season, taking down the Big Blue in overtime, 101-98, at Van Male. Exciting game, and, apart from a brief hiccup late in the fourth quarter in which the two teams exchanged two straight sets of unforced turnovers, a really well-played game, too. Elyce Knudsen was as dominant as always, but she did not come up roses in the endgame situations; she missed a free throw with fourteen seconds left in regulation -- only her second FT miss of the entire season -- that would've put the Big Blue up by two possessions, she missed a big layup attempt in the final minute, and her attempt to send the game into a second OT with an admittedly difficult 26-foot leaner with two seconds left hit the front of the rim and bounced out. Clutch three-point shooting by the Pioneers late in the fourth quarter and into overtime spelled the difference, and it was made especially impressive by the fact that two Pios starters (Lauren Soyke and Natalie Gricius) fouled out of the game early in OT.

Olivia Rangel set a new career high with 30 points to lead the Pios (11-16 from the field, a perfect 8-8 from the stripe), while Gricius had 21 before departing and Emilie Wizner continued showing her hot hand from downtown, as her 18 points featured a 4-5 performance from beyond the arc, a couple of those treys coming late in regulation. Chloe Halverson led the Pios in boards with 7. Knudsen finished the day with 32 points, including 5-10 from distance. Bailey Coffman added 22, Sophie Darden contributed 17, and Matayia Tellis hit double figures as well with 16 in the losing cause.

[Gregory Sager]

By contrast, it was never a game at Faganel, as visiting Carthage led 45-17 at the half and romped to an 80-56 win over Elmhurst. Lauren Knight led the way for the Firebirds with 25 and 10, while Marianna Morrissey had 19 and 7. Elmhurst was paced by Shanyce "Utah" Makuei with 21 and 7, and Kristin Bukata had 12, while M.C. Brown also grabbed seven boards for Elmhurst.

[GoPerry]

UW Whitewater  73
Wheaton 45

Annie Tate had 17 and 6 with 3 steals for Wheaton in the losing cause.  Whitewater is simply more talented overall than the Thunder.  Wheaton was never really in it.

[Gregory Sager]

Augustana 66
North Park 34

Victoria Perry: 17 pts, 11 rebs

Cali Papez: 17 pts, 12 rebs
Emma Berg: 13 pts
Corey Whitlock: 12 pts, 10 rebs
Kylee Devore: 10 pts
Cadence Tatum: 10:3 a:to
Ashley Lang: 4 stls