SLIAC

[Wydown Blvd.]

There were few surprises as IWU rolled over Blackburn 95-43 at Shirk last night, giving coach Mia Smith her 200th victory.  The Titans came out of the blocks fast, running to a 24-6 lead after eight minutes.  The regulars from last season gave strong performances, led by Hope Schulte's 12 and Christina Solari's 11 points with a team-high seven rebounds.  First year players impressed as well: Haley Kitchell contributed another 11 including 3 three-pointers, while Mackenzie Floyd had six rebounds and Melissa Gardner (wearing Claire Sheehan's #10) displayed a pretty three-point shot somewhat reminiscent of Claire's.  The Titans showed good ball movement and were credited with 25 assists.

The Battling Beavers played hard but were clearly overmatched at this point in their season.  Natalia Gregory led their scoring with 14.

[fcnews]

I was very impressed with the New Look Lady Griffin's, in friday nites scrimmage. FU had added some real talent. I am worried about size, but we'll see. Good Luck girls against Hiedelberg.

[hopefan]

Fontbonne over Heidelberg by 14 at half, but Webster, Greenville, Westminster all lose.

[y_jack_lok]

MacMurray and Blackburn also lose. Spalding wins.

[Coach Will]

Blackburn lost to North Central College by two points! The Beavers had a 5 mins bad spurt to start the 2nd half! They battled back from a 16 point 2nd half deficit with 8 mins to go to tie the game! Beavers got fouls with w second left down 3 but the foul was ruled a two shots instead of three!

[y_jack_lok]

Coach, that's a bummer. But I see from the box score that Ariel Hawkey didn't play. Is she one of your injured players and when will she be able to play? I also don't see Sierra Shipley listed at all.

[Coach Will]

Both Shipley and Aerial Hawkey are out for the season! I have three others out hurt that will be back in the next week to 10 days! None of them have played this season! So I am happy with the play of my young kids! North Central did a good job of gutting out a win last night! We can taste that first victory, soon I hope! LOL

[y_jack_lok]

Whoa! Scary to think what your team would be like if you had Shipley and Hawkey. That's too bad that you won't have them this season. But it seems like you still have good talent. Nice going.

[fcnews]

Good showing for the conference in Webster's win. Pre Season #1 WC off to a rocky start. I questioned that portion of the poll.

[y_jack_lok]

From the Blackburn website, the Lady Beavers beat Olivet 57-53. Way to go. SLIAC teams are 8-14 so far.

[Coach Will]

Y Jak, we should have beat North Central and we did not close the deal! We did not play as well tonight and still won! Basketball is a crazy game!!! North Central College and staff were awesome to all of us! Thanks so much to their coaches, and professional staff!

[hopefan]

Yjak, I have been extremely busy on the men's side of the SLIAC, but would be very interested to hear a knowledgable fan's (like yourself) view of the lady's side after a week and a half of games.....  I don't even know who's winning and losing....

[y_jack_lok]

I really don't think I have that much to offer and am not even sure that I qualify as the "knowledgable fan" you credit me with being. With that disclaimer, I believe it is wide open this year now that Maryville has moved on. And even if Maryville were still in the conference I expect they would not have waltzed through the season as easily as they did the past 4+. I think Westminster and Blackburn being rated 1 and 2 respectively is logical. However, knowing now that Blackburn doesn't have Shipley and Hawkey gives the rest of the teams a bit more wiggle room. Regardless, Coach Will is going to have his team prepared every game. Westminster is off to a slow start (1-3) but I don't know much about their competition. Webster has some new faces that make them better and deeper this year than last. Lisa Bayard of Eureka had a great start to the season as evidenced by her selection as the first PoW, but how good is the whole team? Abby Lowe's graduation gives MacMurray some big shoes to fill, but they have a good 2nd year coach, so expect them to be tough. Fcnews has commented that he sees good things in this year's FU team. We are used to him pumping up FU, but I think his bias is always backed up by a solid knowledge of the game and good judge of talent. That leaves Greenville, Principia, and Spalding. Prin without Christina Speer is like MacMurray without Abby Lowe, even though Speer played the post and Lowe was a guard. I don't remember enough about Greenville and don't know anything about Spalding. Hopefully someone else will chime in and add to the pool of information.

[fcnews]

Good post Yjak. +k

[y_jack_lok]

Thanks, fc. And by the way, Eureka lost 75-47 to Monmouth yesterday, so that makes the question mark surrounding their prospects even larger.