MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[GoPerry]

Despite 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.

[Gregory Sager]

Tonight's games, all of which are 7 pm tipoffs:

MSOE (1-1) @ Elmhurst (2-0)
Chicago (2-0) @ Illinois Wesleyan (2-0)
UW-Platteville (2-1) @ North Central (0-1)

[Gregory Sager]

Well, this was a heck of a night.

The first game to finish was in Bloomington. Illinois Wesleyan led almost the whole way but couldn't put away Chicago until the final buzzer, with the Titans finally prevailing, 72-69. The Maroons even had a chance to tie at the buzzer, but their trey attempt was blocked. Noah Cleveland led IWU with 14 and 8, Josh Fridman had a dozen, Brady Kuehl and Casen Lawrence each contributed 11, and Karlo Colak added 10 and a 5:2 a:to.

Moments later, Elmhurst eked out a 71-67 win over visiting MSOE at Faganel. It was 67-65 EU heading to the end of a back-and-forth game, and the Raiders had the ball in the final half-minute, but an ill-advised drive by MSOE's Mason Dopirak into a well-positioned Elmhurst D led to Dopirak dropping his shoulder into the Bluejays defender to clear space and drew a charge call that blew the Raiders' chance to tie the game. Two foul-and-free-throw situations then occurred in which EU sophomore Jack Cherry, who hadn't scored a point all night, calmly sank all four throws to seal the win.

The most dramatic game of the night ended shortly thereafter. North Central and UW-Platteville were in yet another nailbiter, with the Cardinals down by six points at 56-50 in the final minute and a half. They boarded two straight Pioneers misses and came up with big baskets at the other end to draw within two. Then UWP missed yet another shot with 13 seconds left, NCC rebounded again, and the Cards had a chance to tie or win on the last shot with less than ten seconds left. They put it in the hands of their star, Tyler Swierczek, on the left elbow, but he was too closely guarded, so he dumped it off in the left corner to Tyler DiSilvio. DiSilvio shot a fadeaway jumper that went through the cylinder an eyeblink after the buzzer had lit up and the horn sounded, and the frenzied North Central faithful rushed the floor to celebrate what they thought was a 57-56 NCC win. But a video check by the refs determined that DiSilvio had launched his jump while his foot was on the arc line, so the scoreboard changed from 57-56 to 56-56, and all the air went out of the hangar. Sure enough, UWP marshaled the mental wherewithal to put away North Central in OT, so for the second year in a row the Cardinals took the nationally-ranked Pioneers to an extra session and had nothing to show for it in the end. Alejandro Diaz again led the Cards in scoring, this time with 20, while James Bullock chipped in 13 and 7.

CCIW overall: 20-6
Home: 11-3
Away: 8-3
Neutral: 1-0

vs. MIAA: 3-1
vs. MIAC: 3-0
vs. MWC: 5-0
vs. NACC: 6-1
vs. UAA: 1-1
vs. UMAC: 1-0
vs. WIAC: 1-3

[iwu70]

Further on the IWU game, the Titans put together by far their best half of basketball this year in the first have roaring to 42 points, but then only 30 in the second half. 

Roper returned to The Shirk in maroon, to claim his Academic All-American honors as a Titan.  He looks better to me in green.

For Chicago:

Shane 17
Roper 14 and 8, though defended well in the first half by Mason Funk
Cochoran 12 and 12

For IWU:

Cleveland 14 and 8
Fridman 12 with zero TOs
Lawrence 11
Kuehl (his best game so far) 11
Colak 10

IWU shooting 57%, 56% from three, only 44% from the charity stripe.
Strangely, IWU losing the rebounding line badly 22-36.

The key block with a few seconds remaining by David Williams, inserted for defense in that last sequence, preventing a good look trey to tie the game.  No points, one block by Williams.    A key play . . .

IWU moves to 3-0 on the year.

IWU'70

[lmitzel]

The most dramatic game of the night ended shortly thereafter. North Central and UW-Platteville were in yet another nailbiter, with the Cardinals down by six points at 56-50 in the final minute and a half. They boarded two straight Pioneers misses and came up with big baskets at the other end to draw within two. Then UWP missed yet another shot with 13 seconds left, NCC rebounded again, and the Cards had a chance to tie or win on the last shot with less than ten seconds left. They put it in the hands of their star, Tyler Swierczek, on the left elbow, but he was too closely guarded, so he dumped it off in the left corner to Tyler DiSilvio. DiSilvio shot a fadeaway jumper that went through the cylinder an eyeblink after the buzzer had lit up and the horn sounded, and the frenzied North Central faithful rushed the floor to celebrate what they thought was a 57-56 NCC win. But a video check by the refs determined that DiSilvio had launched his jump while his foot was on the arc line, so the scoreboard changed from 57-56 to 56-56, and all the air went out of the hangar. Sure enough, UWP marshaled the mental wherewithal to put away North Central in OT, so for the second year in a row the Cardinals took the nationally-ranked Pioneers to an extra session and had nothing to show for it in the end. Alejandro Diaz again led the Cards in scoring, this time with 20, while James Bullock chipped in 13 and 7.

Diaz had 16 in the first half, then was pretty much held in check for the entire second half. Credit to Platteville for both playing outstanding defense and for winning seemingly every 50-50 ball. NCC was -10 in the rebounding battle and outscored 13-6 on second chance points.

I also have to give props to Dan Dorian, Tariq Lucas, and John Washo, our officials last night. Through the first two games I'd worked so far this season we'd had no replay reviews, then made up for that with three of them last night. A Pioneer got called for an offensive foul in the first half, and they briefly reviewed to see if they needed to upgrade to a Flagrant 1 (they did not). And then prior to Silvy's buzzer beater, they also stopped during NCC's timeout to review the clock. It was originally stopped with 2.3 seconds left, and they added 1.3 ticks, which given that Silvy had to pump fake before uncorking his shot, ended up needed. For all three reviews, they were really good with communicating why they were stopping and what the rulings were.

And while the home crowd was bummed after that third and final review, from what everyone at the table was saying it was the correct call. Too bad, because that was about to enter the pantheon of clutch Cardinal baskets at Merner.

[Gregory Sager]

And while the home crowd was bummed after that third and final review, from what everyone at the table was saying it was the correct call.

I'm glad to read that, because I watched it a couple of times and it was impossible to see where DiSilvio's feet were when he jumped into the air to shoot that final shot in regulation. It was really a matter of technical limitations, since the sole camera for NCC basketball webcasts is high over center court, far up in the old concrete bleachers on the north side of Merner Fieldhouse. That's a million miles away from the extreme southwestern corner of the floor where DiSilvio launched his shot. Even if the camera was closer, I doubt that it could be ascertained from the opposite side of the floor where his feet were when he jumped, given the number of people on the floor between the north-bleachers view and DiSilvio.

However, it leads me to ask, Lucas ... what camera view were the officials using at the table?

[lmitzel]

And while the home crowd was bummed after that third and final review, from what everyone at the table was saying it was the correct call.

I'm glad to read that, because I watched it a couple of times and it was impossible to see where DiSilvio's feet were when he jumped into the air to shoot that final shot in regulation. It was really a matter of technical limitations, since the sole camera for NCC basketball webcasts is high over center court, far up in the old concrete bleachers on the north side of Merner Fieldhouse. That's a million miles away from the extreme southwestern corner of the floor where DiSilvio launched his shot. Even if the camera was closer, I doubt that it could be ascertained from the opposite side of the floor where his feet were when he jumped, given the number of people on the floor between the north-bleachers view and DiSilvio.

However, it leads me to ask, Lucas ... what camera view were the officials using at the table?

From what I could tell, they were going off that main broadcast view (they were huddled at the table but the laptop was turned opposite of me so I didn't have an angle to see what they were seeing, but the laptop they were using had the broadcast feed up.) They just told me it was a two point basket and we were going to overtime, nothing definite about "Not enough to overturn."

[Gregory Sager]

Well, anyway, good on them for having the cojones to make a call that had the potential to enrage a crowd that had just stormed the floor to celebrate an apparent last-second victory for the home team.

I interpret the lack of said rage by Cardinals fans as an affirmation that if an officiating crew stands around a laptop at the scorer's table long enough, everyone present will take it as definitive proof that they're making the right call. The human capacity for faith is an interesting topic, regardless of context.

[Gregory Sager]

Today's games:

Illinois Wesleyan (3-0) @ Wisconsin Lutheran (0-3)	4 pm
Carthage (2-0) vs. Maryville (5-1)	(@ Washington, PA), 4:30 pm
Ripon (0-3) vs. Millikin (4-0)	(@ Stevens Point, WI), 5 pm
St. Scholastica (3-0) @ Wheaton (3-1)	7:15 pm

[GoPerry]

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.

[iwu70]

In Michigan, IWU over Wisconsin Lutheran 97-42

For WLU:

Not a single player scored in double figures.  WLU shooting 12% from three.

IWU:

Lawrence 15
Colak 12
Many players with 7,8,9 points

No one played more than 19 minutes and the entire roster got minutes. 

IWU shooting 50% from the field, 53% from three, and 62% from the line.

Likely a tougher opponent tomorrow -- perhaps Denison.

Titans move to 4-0 on the year.

IWU'70