MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

Well, get to 78 and win the game, but tonight it was Carthage that got there.  The Firebirds over IWU 80-65.  Carthage playing well, shooting it much better than the Titans.  IWU had good defense but a poor night offensively. 

For CC:
R. Johnson 26 and 12
Daun 19
AJ Johnson 18
Schlesinger 11

CC at 41%/48 from three/77 from the line

For IWU:
Colak 21
Cleveland 14 and 9
Lawrence 11
Funk 11 rebounds and 6 blocks, with IWU with 11 total blocks

IWU at 38%/only 21% from three/ 63% from the line.

IWU had trouble with FT shooting and with fouling tonight. 

The CCIW race is tied at the top with six games to go.  IWU to 15-4, 7-3. 

'70

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 84
Carroll 82

Mike Vuckovic: 20 pts (6-8 FG, 6-7 FT), 12:4 a:to
William Bates: 13 pts (6-8 FG)
Julian Campbell: 10 pts (5-7 FG)
Lazario Cornish: 3 blks

Michael McNabb: 26 pts (4-9 trey)
Lamar Smith: 21 pts (9-14 FG), 6 rebs
Peyton McKenna: 11 pts

The big sticking point for North Park throughout this losing streak has been the first half. To put it bluntly, the Vikings have stunk on ice in the opening 20 minutes of each of those losses. Tonight, they came close to having it happen again, as Carroll roared out to an early 16-5 lead and Kolden Vanlandingham had to sit with two quick fouls in the game's first two and a half minutes, just like on Saturday at Wheaton.

This time it didn't happen.

North Park went on a big run, took the lead, kept it for about three minutes ... and then Carroll exploded again, stretching out to a completely new double-digit lead at 40-30. Again, NPU took the haymaker and counterpunched, climbing back into a 41-41 tie at the half.

NPU pushed out to a 14-point lead in the second stanza, only to see the Pios refuse to fold in turn. However, some key defensive stops and good FT shooting (the Vikings had a phenomenal .638/.545/.857 line as a team) allowed the Vikings to prevail, with Kolden Vanlandingham -- four fouls and all -- making a key defensive play to prevent Lamar Smith from getting off a decent attempt to tie it at the final buzzer,

TL;DR: Phew!

[GoPerry]

Augustana 65
Wheaton 71

Kyan VanderWoude  22 pts, 10 rebs
Soren Richardson  21 pts 5 rebs, 3 stls
Carson Grier  12 pts 8 rebs

Andre Klaver  14 pts, 7 rebs
Cam Atkinson  13 pts

The Thunder just had to gut this one out as they really played poorly at times and shot the ball pretty terribly.  The Vikings led for most of the game but never by more than 5-7 pts.  Richardson and Grier were in foul trouble quite a bit. But Kyan VanderWoude really picked up the slack early in the 2nd half to keep his team in it.  One of his better games among lots of good ones that he is beginning to put together.  A few late and untimely turnovers by Augie opened the door just enough for Wheaton to finally get a lead late in the game and extend.

The Thunder needed this one to not give up the tie-breaker with the Vikes.

[Gregory Sager]

Millikin won the other game tonight, 64-55, in the airplane hangar. North Central led for the entire first half, briefly by as many as 10, but the Big Blue stayed close for most of the half. They got their first lead a couple of minutes into the second half, and then the game seesawed back and forth for a full ten minutes. At that point, with the Cardinals up one and about eight minutes and change remaining, MU went on an 8-0 run over a four-minute span that proved decisive.

Lane Thomann had a quiet night, scoring-wise (eight points on 4-9 shooting), but his 17 rebounds is now the new CCIW season high, both in league play and overall. NCC also defended Millikin's other weapon very well, as Nate Straughter scored only nine points on 4-11 from the field, but Chris Ketchum (16) and Kobe Anderson (14) came through for the Big Blue. Tre Davis led the way for North Central with 15, while Sean Molloy and James Bullock each scored 11 for the Cardinals, Bullock also grabbing eight boards.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park's three-headed monster at center scored 28 points tonight on 11-14 shooting from the field, including 3-6 from beyond the arc, plus they grabbed nine rebounds and blocked five shots in their combined 38 minutes on the floor. If the Vikings can get production like that from their bigs on a regular basis, they can turn this thing around.

NPU's .638 shooting percentage from the field tonight is the CCIW's high mark in league games thus far. In fact, it's the highest shooting percentage a CCIW team has managed in over four years:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DUFZfIADVPt/

It's also the seventh-highest shooting percentage a Vikings team has ever registered. Funny thing is, it's not even the highest FG shooting percentage North Park has achieved this season; the Park shot .647 against Greenville back in December, proof again (as if any was needed) that taking on a System team will play havoc with your statistics.