MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[GusD]

North Central stormed back from a 17 point deficit with about 9 minutes left to eventually take a 3 point lead with 16 seconds left, only to have Bethany Lutheran tie the score at 80 on an and-one with 8 ticks left. Alejandro Diaz' three attempt at the buzzer was blocked.
BL scored the first 7 points of the OT to put the Cardinals in yet another hole. They clawed back to trail 88-90 with 29 seconds remaining with possession with BL. Sean Malloy stole the ball almost immediately but subsequently missed a lay-up attempt which was rebounded by Diaz with 5 seconds left at which time NC called timeout. The in-inbounds pass went long to Alejandro who dramatically hit the off balance, closely contested, three ball winner.

Tyler Swierczek: 19 points
Seth Cheney: 16 points
Sean Malloy: 13 points, 8 rebounds
Alejandro Diaz: 13 points
Justin Sveiteris: 11 points
Tyler Surin: 10 points, 8 rebounds

The Cardinals were outshot 58.1% to 40.9%, but overcame the difference by pounding Bethany Lutheran on the boards to the tune of a 43-26 advantage. They also went to the line 36 times, making 31 whereas BL had only 19 attempts, and only cashed in 9 of the 19.

[GusD]

Yesterday North Central squandered a 20 point advantage and lost. Today they overcame a 17 point deficit in regulation, and a 7 point disadvantage in OT to pick up a W.
🏀 is weird. 

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 98
Concordia (IL) 83

Kolden Vanlandingham: 21 pts (4-7 trey), 3 stls
Mike Vuckovic: 18 pts
Julian Campbell: 16 pts, 8 rebs, 3 blks
William Bates: 13 pts

The Vikings led wire-to-wire and won decisively to close out the calendar year, although it wasn't the prettiest win I've ever seen. The Cougars are young, deep, and they run-run-run -- sometimes from one mistake right into the next, but they can drag you down with them into an ugly version of street ball if you're not careful. That's what happened to the Park, who saw a 19-point first half lead dwindle down to four with 9:37 to go. But sixteen seconds later Dylan Fuzak knocked down a trey from the left elbow, and a more composed and mindful Vikings squad went on an 18-5 run (mostly fueled by eight straight points from Mike Vuckovic) to push the lead out to what was eventually 19 points again before Ed McGhee cleared his bench.

Great all-around shooting night for the Park, which had eight different players make treys. I'm pretty sure that that's never happened before. The Viking will now carry a 9-3, 2-1 record into their rematch with North Central on Saturday in the airplane hangar.

[Gregory Sager]

Carroll played its part in the CCIW's steamrolling of the NACC today, as the Pioneers buried Edgewood, 95-68, at Van Male. Lamar Smith had a really nice 23 and 9 game, going 8-9 from the field, while Evan Bland showed that he's all the way back from his injury by scoring 18. Michael McNabb, the CCIW's leading scorer, had a quiet (for him) night with 13, but he did come up with four steals. Dennis Estepp also added 11 for the Pios.

Augustana was the only downer of the day for the CCIW, as Billy Bach of DePauw hit a deep trey at the buzzer to tie the game at 75-75 and set the stage for the Tigers to run away from the disheartened Rock Islanders in overtime, as Augie lost, 95-85, at Carver. Marieon Anderson led the way for Augie with 21, Andre Klaver scored 20 before fouling out in the extra session, Cam Atkinson scored 17, and Jake Willems added 11.

Elmhurst used a 21-5 first-half run to break open a close game against Ripon, and then ran away and hid in the second half in an 84-57 blowout at Faganel. Luke Smith scored a career-high 17 for the victors, with Dom Trellenberg chipping in a 14 and 10 double-double and Aidyn Boone adding 12 and 7.

[Gregory Sager]

CCIW overall: 51-24 (.680)
Home: 23-11
Away: 19-10
Neutral: 9-3

vs. ARC: 0-3
vs. C2C: 0-1
vs. CCS: 0-1
vs. HCAC: 2-0
vs. MIAA: 6-1
vs. MIAC: 4-0
vs. MWC: 10-1
vs. NACC: 14-1
vs. NCAC: 2-1
vs. SAA: 0-1
vs. SKY: 1-0
vs. SLIAC: 5-0
vs. UAA: 2-1
vs. UMAC: 2-0
vs. WIAC: 3-13

Wednesday's games:
Illinois Wesleyan (8-3) vs. Hamilton (2-8), 12 pm (@ New York, NY)
Wheaton (6-4) @ Wisconsin Lutheran (3-7), 1 pm
Millikin (9-2) @ Knox (5-6), 3 pm

[iwu70]

Greg, thanks for all the good reports on today's games.

I'm sure you know I'm still struggling with "Amelianovich" -- .

Happy New Year to all.

IWU'70

[iwu70]

In a pretty ragged, poor-shooting game at Yeshiva, IWU over Hamilton, 69-57.

For Hamilton:
Rideout 14
Kulenovic 8

32%/24% from three/ 62% FTs

For IWU:
Cleveland again a monster game, 22 and 14, even 2-4 from three
Funk 11 with 4 steals
Colak 11
Niego 8 assists, 2 TOs

39%, 28% from three/ 55 % from the FT line

Not exemplar by either team.  But, a win is a win, on the road, during the Christmas / New Year holiday trip in New York City.  Some good times had by the team and coaching staff in NYC.  Memorable.

IWU goes to 9-3, 1-2 in CCIW.  Now the conference race begins.  IWU back in action vs. Carroll at The Shirk on Saturday.

IWU'70

[Gregory Sager]

Wheaton became the fourth CCIW team to chew up and spit out Wisconsin Lutheran this season, cruising to an easy 83-56 win up north in which the Schauerites were never headed. Soren Richardson was the key figure with 18 points as well as three steals and a 4:0 a:to. Carson Grier had 17 and 9, Reid Olson scored 16, Kyan VanderWoude contributed 13 and 8, and Devin Martin had 10 with a sparkling 6:2 floor game. Brady Wynja led Wheaton in rebounds with 10. Enjoyed watching the game, as WLC's play-by-play guy John Hentzel (not sure how he spells his last name) always calls the game well, and he had one of WLC's now-graduated class of '25 stars, Ryan Broeckel, on as his colorman -- very interesting to listen to the input as well as the reminiscences of a recent graduate who was a part of Warriors teams that dominated the NACC and made tournament runs.

[GoPerry]

Wheaton  83
Wisconsin Lutheran  56

Carson Grier  17 pts, 9 rebs
Soren Richardson 18 pts
Reid Olson 16 pts
Brady Wynja  8 pts, 10 rebs
Kyan VanderWoude 13 pts 8 rebs

Trey Luehring  11pts
Sam Hans  8 pts 7 rebs

The Thunder scored the first 8 pts of the game and were never really threatened after the first 5 mins by an under-sized Warriors team clearly in re-build mode.  WL shot a pretty dismal 26% from the field on 17-64 shooting.  A good win for Wheaton to get back into things. They will head downtown to Hyde Park on Saturday and the #6 U of C Maroons which will be all the challenge they want before league play resumes.

[Gregory Sager]

Nine of the 11 games CCIW teams are playing between Christmas and New Year's Day are against teams with losing records. Thus far the CCIW has taken care of business by dispensing with the eight sub-.500 teams they've faced. Millikin just got underway at Knox, so we'll see if the Big Blue can make it nine out of nine.

[Gregory Sager]

Fascinating game in Galesburg. Millikin started off very slowly, caught up with Knox at the end of the half -- and then a fracas broke out, resulting in the ejections of Nate Straughter and Kobe Anderson as well as a Prairie Fire role player. Compounding MU's woes was the injury almost immediately thereafter of Ian Winkler, who sat out the entire second half. The Big Blue went into the locker room down three, and it looked ominous. But they came back out in the second half and got the lead -- and then Lane Thomann, who had mostly been a one-man show for MU up to that point, picked up his third foul and had to sit for a big chunk of the second half. It just didn't look like Millikin's day.

And here's why the game will be memorable if you're a Millikin fan: Kramer Soderberg, forced to go much deeper into his bench than he typically does, got terrific efforts from Jacob Aydelott and Jacob Stellwagon, who'd only previously played 25 minutes this season between the two of them (most of them against Greenville), and from last-man-in-the-rotation Eli Stipp. These three afterthoughts combined to go 8-8 from the field, including 4-4 from downtown, to provide 21 points from totally unexpected sources. Meanwhile, Chris Ketchum, who had been completely invisible in the first half, took over the game; he tipped in four or five MU misses, as he must've been coated in butter due to the Prairie Fire's inability to put a body on him. The Big Blue flew out to a 15-point lead, and although Knox got it back down to four, Thomann reentered and helped build it back into double digits, as Millikin moved to 10-2 on the season with a 92-80 win.

Thomann had 28 and 8, plus four steals, while Ketchum finished with 21 and 10. Straughter had 10 points before he was tossed. The downside to this impressive road win (albeit over a mediocre foe) is that the Big Blue are going to have to go to Rock Island on Saturday with Straughter and Anderson remaining in street clothes due to the mandatory fighting suspension -- plus, who knows how badly Winkler got hurt. It's all good news for Augustana, which could use some right now.

[Gregory Sager]

CCIW overall: 56-24 (.700)
Home: 24-11
Away: 23-10
Neutral: 9-3

vs. ARC: 0-3
vs. C2C: 0-1
vs. CCS: 0-1
vs. HCAC: 3-0
vs. MIAA: 6-1
vs. MIAC: 3-0
vs. MWC: 12-1
vs. NACC: 15-1
vs. NCAC: 2-1
vs. NESCAC: 1-0
vs. SAA: 0-1
vs. SKY: 1-0
vs. SLIAC: 5-0
vs. UAA: 2-1
vs. UMAC: 3-0
vs. WIAC: 3-13

Saturday's games:
Wheaton (7-4) @ Chicago (9-1), 2 pm
North Park (9-3, 2-1) @ North Central (), 4 pm
Millikin (10-2, 2-1) @ Augustana (6-5, 1-1), 4:15 pm
Carroll (6-5, 1-1) @ Illinois Wesleyan (9-3, 1-2), 4:15 pm
Elmhurst (8-3, 1-1) @ Carthage (8-4, 2-1), 4:15 pm

end of non-conference play