Wheaton    85
St Scholastica    64

Soren Richardson  20 pts, 8 rebs
Devin Martin    14 pts, 7 asst : 1 to
Carson Greir, Reid Olson  13 pts ea

Davion Butler  17 pts
Aaron Keykal  10 pts, 8 rebs

In game 2 of the Lee Pfund Classic, the Thunder jumped all over the Saints early and were never really threatened.

Tomorrow's championship game vs pre-season #7 UW-LaCrosse will be a far more difficult challenge.  The Eagles are big, skilled with multiple weapons and experienced.  This will be a terrific early season matchup to help evaluate where this young Wheaton team is and how competitive they will be in the CCIW.

Quote from: Gregory Sager on November 18, 2025, 09:55:34 PMDespite trailing throughout the entire first half, often by double digits, Wheaton blew the doors off of  a Benedictine team that cooled down considerably in the second half (and took terrible care of the ball throughout the game) in the latter stanza in King, outscoring the Bennies 55-32 en route to a 95-80 win. Big 28 and 8 night for Kyan Vanderwoude, while Soren Richardson and Carson Grier each scored 15 (and had four and three steals, respectively) and Kyle Neibch and Reid Olson put in a dozen points apiece, almost all of them from beyond the arc.

A nice comeback win for the Thunder after the disappointing loss on Saturday.

After 4 games, 3 different players , Richardson, VanderWoude (2x) , and Grier have led the team in scoring.  Last season, Richardson was pretty much the sole offensive threat until the last few games.

Wheaton 75
Hope  76

Carson Grier  24 pts, 12 rebs
Devin Martin  15 pts, 5 asst

Marcus Wourman  22 pts
Parker Hovey  14 pts 9 rebs
Brendan Cargill, 12 pts, 10 rebs


It's too bad.  Wheaton had a 12 pt lead with 4:48 left and, similar to Lake Forest game, controlled the whole game.  But for the second game in a row, the Thunder inexplicably blew a large lead down the stretch due to sloppy defense (plain laziness at times) and lack of offensive discipline  This time it bit them with two treys by Hope's Brendan Cargill with 42 secs left, and then by Marcus Wourman with no time on the clock after a VanderWoude ft miss.  Mike Schauer said after the Lake Forest game that he never really thought Wheaton would lose that one.  I'm sure he felt the same way this afternoon.  We'll see if this young team learns from this.  Fun team to watch but frustrating at the same time.

One huge positive is the play of freshman Grier who had a monster game in the losing cause.  At 6'8" he is pretty quick and mobile for a forward that size and skilled offensively.  Tonight might've been a real coming out for him.

Wheaton  93
Lake Forest  89

Soren Richardson  27 pts, 4 rebs, 4 asst
Carson Grier  16 pts, 6 rebs, 3 blks
Devon Martin  15 pts 11 asst/4 tos, 3 stls

Cristian Rodriquez  22pts, 6 rebs
Alex Forowycz  19 pts 5 reb


A victory for Wheaton which is all that really matters.  But almost doesn't feel that way because the Thunder almost lost a game that they totally controlled for the first 29 mins.  Wheaton led by 19, 78-59 with 11 mins left.  But a little complacency set in, some quick ill advised shots and 12 second half turnovers by Wheaton allowed the Foresters to cut the lead down to 2 with 1:45 left.  I suppose young teams sometimes have to learn some very hard lessons which a terrible loss would have taught.  Let's hope they learned the game is 40 mins and you have to play all of them.  Credit Lake Forest for fighting til the end.

Once Carson Grier can learn to play good defense without fouling, which might not happen til soph year, he will be pretty impactful.

Wheaton  99
Concordia U – Wisconsin  95

Kyan Vanderwoude 25 pts, 5 rebs
Soren Richardson, 18 & 6
Kyle Neibch, 18 pts 5/8 from three

The Thunder won't figure to win many games this season giving up 95 points.  But this was still a very nice opening win for Wheaton.

Offensively, the Thunder have lots of weapons.  Soren Richardson we all know will cause problems for the defense.  Kyan Vanderwoude is listed at 6'5" but his mobility and athleticism allows him to play more like 6'7".  The most interesting thing however, was that several freshman saw significant minutes.  Carson Grier from Tempe, AZ at 6'8" brings well needed size to the lineup.  Brad Wynja out of Colorado is a big body at 225 lbs and Skokie local Reid Olson is a really nice addition to the backcourt to spell or play alongside Devin Martin.  There's a lot to look forward to this season and the next few.

The Falcons were led by Logan Landers and Casey Verhagen, each with 27 pts.

https://x.com/caadvantage_mb/status/1884333138228183543

This looks quite promising for the Thunder next year.  Adding some needed height. 6'4" and 6'8" brothers. The taller kid's highlights look pretty good but I can never tell how that translates to the next level.

Wheaton wins their third in a row at Millikin, 86-78.

Familiar story.  The Thunder came out guns blazing again, shooting 54% in the first half and got out to a 20 pt lead.  They mean reverted in the 2nd half but MU just didn't have enough to make it all the way back.

Soren Richardson had a quieter game, 23 pts,  having to sit out due to foul trouble for big minutes in the 2nd half. Freshman Kyle VanderWoude with the impressive double double 17 and 13. Noah Hedrick continues to overcome guarding much bigger players while going for 15 pts 6 rebs.

Noah Livingston had 18 for the Big Blue while Lane Thomann contributed 17 pts and 7 boards.

Wheaton Ladies with a good 79-67 home win over Elmhurst.

Annika Richardson led with a career high 36 pts on 13/18 shooting, 5/9 from trey (big night for the Richardson family w/ Soren's 53 pts at NPU**).  She got the double-double with 12 rebounds and 3 steals.  Kate Oliver added 17 pts.  Grace Kizer had some key 2nd half baskets and finished with 11 pts.  Wheaton moves up into a tie for 4th in the conference.

EC's Sierra Gibson had 18 pts while Cierra Steemer added 14 pts and 9 rebs.

**Richardson family (sis/bro) scoring line on the night:  31/41 FG (75.6%), 11/17 three (64.7%), 16/20 FT (80%) . . 89 pts.

Sitting in 5th place, the Wheaton Ladies (5-5) are in good position to make the CCIW tournament.  They are a game ahead of Elmhurst (6th) and a game behind Carthage and Millikin (tied for 3rd).  With 5 out of the last 6 games at King Arena, it's reasonable to think they could move up and at least secure a 1st rd home game.  With an upset or two, third place would avoid having to presumably face IWU @ Shirk in the semis, if they advance.  Beating Elmhurst on Wed will be particularly important.

They will need to play well and get some contributions from their less experienced young players.  For some reason, Kate Oliver only played 18 mins in the last game @ NPU. She wasn't in foul trouble that I could see and I tuned in late and saw her on the floor as usual.  I hope it is not injury related because they desperately need her scoring on a team that is challenged in that area.  That and taking care of the ball – TOs killing them.

Quote from: GusD on January 09, 2025, 03:27:32 PM

Quote from: lmitzel on January 08, 2025, 09:49:29 PMNCC looked at Wheaton's results in conference so far, said "That's adorable," and proceeded to almost double monkey stomp the Thunder 86-48.

Wheaton's three point shooting had them in the game and only down 36-27 at half, but opened the second half on a 14-0 run to put it out of reach.

Ethan Helwig: 17 pts, 5 reb
James Bullock, Jr: 15 pts, 6 reb
Tyler Swierczek: 14 pts
Drew Gaston: 14 pts

Kyle Niebch: 19 pts
Noah Hedrick: 7 pts
Devin Martin: 5 pts, 6 ast

North Central actually opened the 2nd half with a 19-0 (not 14-0) run. Coupled with Ethan Helwig's three to end the 1st half, the Cardinals scored 22 points in a row.

While the Cardinals 86 points represent a nice offensive explosion, this victory was unquestionably primarily due to a superior defensive effort, particularly in the 2nd half. While the Thunder shot 53% in the opening stanza, they were held to just 28% in the second. Wheaton's Soren Richardson is the CCIW's leading scorer averaging 20.4 PPG. NCC really clamped down on him, holding him to 5 points and forcing him to commit 5 of Wheaton's 17 TOs, those TOs resulting in 24 of NCC's 86 points.

NCC's 38 point margin of victory is the most in the series since 1967.

Yes 17-9 on turnover margin for NCC.  That AND 13 offensive boards for the Cardinals vs well, goose egg, for the Thunder.  All that adds up to 61 shot attempts for the home team vs a mere 42 for Wheaton.  Wheaton could've shot 70% from the field and it would not have mattered. 

Quote from: RogK on January 05, 2025, 12:43:04 PMBoth teams were allowed to play feisty defense, which kept the score down to 22-22 at the half.
Reviewing the stats, I was surprised to see only 1 steal for Wheaton's Petra Trumbach; I thought she had 3 or so.
In regard to IWU turnovers, here is the range from their 13 games : 9 9 10 10 10 12 16 16 16 16 17 18 29. The 29 occurred in the OT game.

For some reason, women are not able to take care of the ball as well as men.  The 50th ranked team in turnovers averages 14.4 (Penn St- Altoona, UW-Stevens Point) while the same for men is 11.1 (Rivier, Trinity (CT), UWRF). Why is that? I don't know.  Maybe RogK can take a shot at that??

So turnovers are much more prevalent in the ladies game.  But even accounting for my lowered expectations, turnovers by the Wheaton women have been their most obvious downfall.  And in my opinion, so many are unnecessary and can be coached (bounce passes, no cross-court passes to name just two).  The Thunder's most talented player is clearly Kate Oliver but she seems to be playing out of position as the primary ball handler (.65 asst:to).

Yes, turnover ratio is a key marker for a pressure team like IWU.  If you can't be at least +5 then you are exerting alot of energy for not much benefit. And if you turn it over 15+ times the maintaining that margin is tough.  IWU has been much better than all of that all season - just not on Saturday.

IWU  85
Wheaton 80  (OT)

Wheaton played a fantastic game with a masterful strategy - for 38 mins.  We've all seen it so many times where a big underdog, on the verge of a big win (up by 9 with 4 mins remaining), gets just a little bit too conservative on offense down the stretch trying to run some clock and it just goes badly.  Once a team loses its offensive edge, it is tough for a veteran team to get it back to say nothing of a young team.

Desperate times and lack of height in the lineup = Wheaton playing a 3-2 zone the entire game and to great effect.  The Titans really struggled against it, again, for 38 mins.  As painfully disappointing as this one was, the Thunder played a clearly superior team very tough all night.  And while Mike Schauer will not claim a moral victory, this was as close as it gets.  Still way too many 3 point shots ( 39 trey attempts out of 64 total shots) for my taste, but y'know, whatever.

IWU 59
Wheaton 45

The game was closer than the 14 pt final until about 3 mins left in the game.  The Wheaton ladies had a chance but they really don't have the offensive talent to compete with the Titans.  Although they kept the turnovers under 20 (18), they were terribly outrebounded on the offensive glass (-13) and only abysmal shooting by IWU (22/67; 32.8%) kept the outcome in question.

The Thunder played a very difficult non-conference schedule and played decently well even in the losses to ranked teams.  Perhaps as a result, they might be able to stick around enough to keep games close against the better teams.  But they don't quite have what it takes to finish.  They could really use a reliable ball handler to run things.

#8 UW-Whitewater 65
Wheaton  58

The Wheaton ladies gave the Lady Warhawks a very good game last night in Whitewater.  UWW All-American Kacie Carollo pretty much does it all and finished the game with 33 pts, 10 rebs, 3 blks, 3 stls.

Wheaton was down by as much as 9 pts throughout the game but never had the lead.  To their credit the Thunder ladies were able to tie the game at 56-56 with 1:45 left on a pair of Kate Oliver (19pts, 8 rebs) free throws.  But UWW was more experienced and better coached down the stretch to extend the lead and seal it.  I'm not sure why Annika Richardson didn't start the game but she finished with starters minutes and 15 pts.

I'm glad to see Wheaton schedule 3 WIAC opponents (Platteville, #6 Oshkosh, #8 Whitewater)  this season, all on the road.  Platteville was the only one that was not really close.  Hopefully this will help them once conference play begins.  Rebounding and generally sloppy play ( turnovers – 23 last night, 25 game before) continues to drive their losses.

Wheaton 68-64 over Lake Forest.

After finishing dead last in the conference last year at 5-11, it's not surprising that the Thunder were picked to finish there again this season by the coaches.

After watching the Thunder in their first two games; a loss @ Benedictine (a game they should have won, up by as much as 19 pts and never trailed) and a win @ Lake Forest I am seeing a very young but fairly talented team that will be pretty competitive.  It's early yet, but a few takeaways are:

Through the first two games, there's a dramatic drop in the amount of three point attempts.  19 vs BU and 18 LF sharply down from the near 29 3attempts/game last season where it seemed like treys were the only shots worth taking.  I really hope that continues.  Second, soph Soren Richardson (lots of treys last season) is displaying much more inside, posting up and driving to the basket game than anyone ever thought he had from watching last season.  He looks capable of breaking out a little this season.  Third, there are several freshman that will see a lot of playing time and they are a pretty talented group.  Devin Martin (Westerville, OH) already looks comfortable running the offense from the point and he's not afraid to score.  Kyan VanderWoude (Caledonia, MI) is listed at 6'4" but seems to play longer than that with good rebounding ability and comfortable inside scoring.  Christian Viers (La Grange, KY) had some solid minutes vs LF and played over half the game off the bench.  Their inexperience and need to quickly acclimate to this level of DIII play was evident in the loss at BU (the refs absolutely bailed out BU on the last play to allow the Eagles two free throws to win it). 

Like I said, only two games in but there's plenty to be hopeful about.  This season and certainly for the next couple.