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