MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[lmitzel]

NCC 71
Benedictine 53

I made the trek up Maple Avenue to go catch this one in person, and got treated to a very low scoring first half that saw NCC trail most of the way before taking a 28-26 lead to the locker room. After the Eagles fairly quickly tied it early in the second half, the Cardinals went on a 15-3 run to take complete control of the game. The Cardinals survived a 3-21 night from beyond the arc by going 14-16 from the line, going +14 in the rebounding battle, and more than doubling up BenU on points in the paint. The ball movement, especially in the second half, was fantastic.

Alejandro Diaz: 13 pts, 8 reb, 6 ast
Tyler Swierczek: 11 pts, 4 reb
James Bullock Jr: 11 pts, 4 reb
Tyler Surin: 10 pts (1st career game in double figures)

And then my son got to hold the Bill Warden/Tony LaScala Trophy postgame, which was pretty cool.

[GusD]

NCC 71
Benedictine 53

I made the trek up Maple Avenue to go catch this one in person, and got treated to a very low scoring first half that saw NCC trail most of the way before taking a 28-26 lead to the locker room. After the Eagles fairly quickly tied it early in the second half, the Cardinals went on a 15-3 run to take complete control of the game. The Cardinals survived a 3-21 night from beyond the arc by going 14-16 from the line, going +14 in the rebounding battle, and more than doubling up BenU on points in the paint. The ball movement, especially in the second half, was fantastic.

Alejandro Diaz: 13 pts, 8 reb, 6 ast
Tyler Swierczek: 11 pts, 4 reb
James Bullock Jr: 11 pts, 4 reb
Tyler Surin: 10 pts (1st career game in double figures)

And then my son got to hold the Bill Warden/Tony LaScala Trophy postgame, which was pretty cool.

As touched upon above by lmitzel, the Cardinals put on a clinic in ball movement in the 2nd half last evening. It was likely the primary deciding factor in the outcome. Specifically, the interior passing game was stellar and was, in fact, so good that you would have thought you were watching an instructional video on the subject. Led primarily by "Dro" Diaz and Tre Davis, the Cards employed passes off both dribble penetration and on pick and rolls that resulted in several easy layups, punctuated by a Justin Sveiteris dunk in the closing minute.
Noteworthy is the fact that domination on the boards enabled many of the possessions that resulted in the highlighted passing plays.