WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

NPU held off a late rally by Augustana to prevail, 61-58, in the battle of the Vikings at the crackerbox in Chicago. Laura Mount led the Park with 23 points and 7 rebounds, while Shandrel Young added 13 points. Crissy Komperda came off the bench to grab 9 boards in only 13 minutes of action for North Park, and Evie Peterson garnered 8 caroms. Nancy Marcum led Augie with 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Kim Rymer contributed 14 points.

No score yet from Millikin @ Elmhurst, and Illinois Wesleyan @ North Central is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.

[Gregory Sager]

Millikin won at Elmhurst, 59-54 in double overtime.

This is as wide open as the league has been in a long, long time.

Updated CCIW standings:

Ill. Wesleyan 6-2
Wheaton 6-2
North Park 6-3
Carthage 5-3
Millikin 4-4
Elmhurst 3-5
North Central 3-5
Augustana 0-9

WEDNESDAY:
Ill. Wesleyan @ North Central

SATURDAY:
Augustana @ Carthage
Elmhurst @ Ill. Wesleyan
Millikin @ North Central
North Park @ Wheaton

[Mr. Ypsi]

Millikin won at Elmhurst, 59-54 in double overtime.

This is as wide open as the league has been in a long, long time.

You've certainly got that right!  What a wacky year!

With a freshman at Wheaton being MOP, then a freshman at Millikin emerging as a star in the national tourney, I figured we were in for AT LEAST 3 more years of (usually) everyone else fighting for third.  (I tallied it up a few months ago, but can't find the sheet and am too lazy to do it again, but I seem to recall that in the last 12 years, Millikin had won or shared the title 10 times, and Wheaton had been in the top two 7 or 8 times.)

I think it is obvious that Millikin has somehow slipped this year, but I hope that the parity is MAINLY that the conference has risen, rather than the 'big two' have fallen.  I'd love to see the CCIW women reach the level of national acclaim that the men have attained.

[pizzzaman]

National champs deserve respect, but 30 freethrows for Millikin and 3 for Elmhurst.....

[Gregory Sager]

Illinois Wesleyan won at North Central, 77-60, so the Titans now have a half-game lead on Wheaton in the win column.

[TitanPride24]

I believe the Titans beat North Central 70-66 in OT. They are now on a 6-game winning streak to move into first place. This is very impressive. But what makes it even more remarkable is that they have done it without starters Crystal Dye and Amanda Glerum and two freshmen in the starting lineup. Freshman starter Claire Sheehan, as well as senior Heidi Harnisch, had 22 points tonight against NCC.

It's almost shocking that the IWU team in first place in the CCIW is the women and not the men. Hopefully, they will both be playing in the postseason.

[Titan Q]

We will have the Illinois Wesleyan vs Elmhurst game from the Shirk Center on WJBC2.com tomorrow...

http://www.wjbc2.com/

We'll be on the air at 5:05 for the 5:15 tip.

Ill. Wesleyan  7-2
Wheaton 6-2
North Park 6-3
Carthage 5-3
Millikin 4-4
Elmhurst 3-5
North Central 3-6
Augustana 0-9

February 4 
North Park @ Wheaton, 7:30 p.m. 
Elmhurst @ Ill. Wesleyan, 5:15 p.m. 
Augustana @ Carthage, 2 p.m. 
Millikin @ North Central, 2 p.m. 

[ecwhoops]

How about it I have lived long enough to finally see EC win in Bloomington.Can't remember last time that happened.Still waiting for the mens team to win in Bloomington.Sounds like this could be a great finish to end to get into final 4 for the tourney.A lot of possiblities this week could change the conference standings.All and all more good hoops to follow.It is a tougher conference thenever that I can rememeber. Good luck to all the teams in the CCIW.Just would like to able to see more games.

[Gregory Sager]

NPU bounced back from its lackluster effort on Saturday at Wheaton, registering a workmanlike 57-49 home win over North Central this evening.

The Vikings led from wire to wire, as they jumped out to a 10-0 lead out of the gate. As has been their m.o. this season, however, they proved unable to hold the double-digit lead, as the Cards went on a 10-2 run of their own to eliminate the threat of a blowout. NPU slowly opened their lead back up, and went into the locker room up by nine at 28-19.

In the second half, the Cards cut the lead to five a couple of times at 15:07 and 13:32, but a big trey by Bethany Conrad at 8:40 got the Viking lead back up to ten at 44-34, and the Park got their biggest lead of the game, twelve points, at 6:58 (48-36) and 5:48 (50-38) on two FTs and a left-baseline layup, respectively, by Laura Mount. At that point, however, North Park tightened up on offense and the Cardinals began pushing the ball inside against NPU's foul-plagued frontcourt. North Central ran off ten straight points, bringing it to a 50-48 nailbiter at the 1:50 mark on a Lashawndra Brown layup.

NPU then got the biggest play of the game, a successful bank shot by Megan Slattery from the right block that also drew a foul from NCC's Jennifer Norris. After Slattery completed the three-point play, the Vikings pulled away in the final minute with a strong performance at the FT line, where they went 15-16 for the night (North Central almost matched them, going 14-16 from the charity stripe).

Megan Slattery and Shandrel Young had 15 points apiece for the Park, with Slattery contributing 5 rebounds and Young going a perfect 8-8 from the FT line. Laura Mount had 14 points, 5 rebounds, and 7 steals, and Evie Peterson added 5 rebounds. Jennifer Norris was the only Cardinal in double figures with 10 points, and she also led North Central with 5 rebounds.

Elmhurst was the only other CCIW team to hold serve on their home court tonight, as the 'jays handled Carthage, 63-51. Wheaton defeated Augustana in Rock Island, 59-43; and Illinois Wesleyan held off Millikin, 72-62, in Decatur.

CURRENT STANDINGS:
Wheaton 8-2
Ill. Wesleyan 8-3
North Park 7-4
Carthage 6-4
Elmhurst 5-5
Millikin 4-6
North Central 4-7
Augustana 0-11

SATURDAY'S GAMES:
Millikin @ Augustana
North Central @ Carthage
North Park @ Elmhurst
Wheaton @ Ill. Wesleyan

[wbbfan32]

wbbfan32-

Why aren't Blackburn and Vollmer on the team anymore?  Injured? Quit? Kicked-off?  Just curious!!!

Sorry I haven't gotten back to this sooner, I've been busy.

I do not want to say much, but I do know that both Blackburn and Vollmer left the team.  They weren't injured or sick.  I think it might be a little obvious if anyone looks at the box scores from their Freshman year to the San Fran Tourney.  Their playing time went down each year, yet their numbers went up.  No one can say that they have gotten worse...they got better.  I guess it just wasn't recognized in time.  You can't overlook people and expect them to be there.  (Just another little fact: Anyone notice how the roster for MU has a lack of upperclassmen other than the seniors?  Since it's hard to know the original roster since it's always changing, I can't really tell.  But, I do know that there have been recent modifications)

Other news:  Millikin lost to IWU tonight by at least 10 points.  Someone tell me how your top player has about 27 points (almost half of the teams points) and yet the next highest scorer on the team has about 7 points?  Your top player can't do it all.  She can only give enough heart and soul for herself...she can't play for more than one person at a time!!  When MU started this season, I did have my doubts about how well the leadership was going to be this year, but I did not see this.  There seems to be no leadership out on that court and more selfish playing than I have ever seen.  Turnovers seem to happen more often than assists and rebounds put together at times.  I want to point out that they have only lost ONE STARTING player from the National Championship team.  Obviously, there are still four starters from that National Champ team.....so if it's not talent that's missing, it's leadership.  I'm not afraid to state that opinion now and anyone who has seen an MU game can see by just watching everyone on the court that it seems leadership is missing.  I have witnessed players fighting (more like yelling) at each other on the floor; leaders can't do that.  I am an MU fan, but this is just getting pretty sick to watch.

It has been an interesting CCIW this year, that's for sure.  I'm just sad that Augie isn't getting a better chance; it seems like everyone else is.

[buf]

wbbfan 32-

Its too bad that has happened to Millikin, I'm a bit surprised.  From watching the MU at UWEC game last year, it seemed that the coach had a great attitude, and instead of yelling at officials, she was joking around with them.  However, one thing I have noticed looking at boxscores throughout the past couple seasons is that she doesn't go to deep on her bench.  Obviously a problem for those who wish to play more.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Who'd a thunk it - with four games still to be played, defending national champion (and consensus pick for #1) Millikin is mathematically eliminated.  (Of course, they are not yet eliminated from the tourney, and COULD still make the national tourney, but...)

Lori Kearns is such a good coach that I suspect this will go down as one of those inexplicable glitches (like when they finished sixth a few years ago in the midst of a run of 10 titles in 12 years), rather than any sort of true downfall. 

I'm guessing that Millikin will be right there on (or near) the top next year (and this is not discounting the possibility they may still win the tourney THIS year).

[Fawkes316]

Interesting thing is that was the freshman year of these Millikin seniors. Coach Kerans recruited a class of freshman who finished out of the tourney their freshman year, though most of them got a year of starting experience. The next year they won the conference and the following year they won the National Championship. Now it looks like they may not make the tournament. A weird bookend to a very successful career for a number of very talented players.

[wheatonc]

Final:

Wheaton 63
Illinois Wesleyan 49


A great defensive effort by the Thunder.  Jill Trenz had a huge offensive effort.  Wheaton is in 1st place with three games remaining.

[Fawkes316]

Wheatonc-Trenz played a very good game, but it was really Fox who carried Wheaton when it mattered. She was huge in the first half when Wheaton started off slow. She hit a couple of big threes with the shot clock expiring and rebounded very well.

She averaged 16.5 points, 8 rebounds and 3.5 assists this week and has to be a top candidate for CCIW Player of the Week honors, and maybe even D3hoops Team of the Week (would join Trenz from a couple of weeks ago.) Over the last five games she is averaging 16 points and 7.6 rebounds.

By the way, IWU had a couple of threes rim out that could have narrowed the lead in the second half. One of Heydorn's was so far into the cylinder that I don't know how it managed to come back out, even though I saw it with my own eyes.