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. Haven't seen a display like that in quite awhile. 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.

[Gregory Sager]

The other scores from last night:

UW-Platteville 76, Augustana 74, in overtime up in Lead City
Carroll 93, MSOE 80, up in Brewtown
Elmhurst 75, DePauw 71, down yonder in Greendingle

Tonight Carthage motored northward to Ripon and rediscovered its mojo by pulping the RedHawks into red sauce, 84-56. Riley Brooks had 16, Antuan Nesbitt tossed in 15, Chris Schlesinger contributed 13 off the bench, AJ Johnson amassed 12, and Riley Johnson pulled down nine boards, as the Firebirds held a lead in the low 30s over Ripon for much of the second half and no Carthage starter played more than 24 minutes.

CCIW overall: 31-14
Home: 12-7
Away: 15-5
Neutral: 4-2

vs. ARC: 0-2
vs. C2C: 0-1
vs. CCS: 0-1
vs. HCAC: 2-0
vs. MIAA: 3-1
vs. MIAC: 4-0
vs. MWC: 8-0
vs. NACC: 9-1
vs. NCAC: 2-0
vs. UAA: 1-1
vs. UMAC: 1-0
vs. WIAC: 1-7

Saturday's games:

UW-Stout (2-3) @ Illinois Wesleyan (5-0), noon
North Central (1-3) @ Hope (2-2), 3 pm CDT
Millikin (5-1) @ Webster (5-0), 3 pm
UW-Stevens Point (5-0) @ North Park (3-1), 4 pm

[GusD]

Logic dictates that if the current forecast for Saturday afternoon and evening proves correct, there is a high probability that many Midwest region games will be postponed with some ultimately even being canceled depending on the involved teams' future available makeup dates.

[GusD]

Just learned that the North Central 🏀 game @ Hope, scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, has been postponed. Others to follow?

* Rescheduled to 12/17.

[Titan Q]

Regarding games tomorrow...

MBB: IWU vs UW-Stout is on for noon. (Stout traveled to Bloomington today.)

WBB: The Midwest Challenge at IWU is on.  (All 3 visiting teams traveled to Bloomington today.)
-2pm: DePauw vs WashU
-4pm: IWU vs UW-La Crosse

[Greek Tragedy]

Greg,

Any word on the Point vs North Park game Saturday??

[iwu70]

Q, thanks for the update.  Glad to see the IWU games and tournament on.  I drove back from Minneapolis yesterday, too, just to see these games in person!! 

Best to all CCIW chatsters for the holidays upcoming.  Be safe out there.

IWU'70

[Gregory Sager]

Millikin @ Webster has been postponed until tomorrow, with tipoff time TBA.

As of the last email update I received, which was a half-hour ago, UWSP @ North Park is still on for this afternoon at 4 pm.

NPU's women's game at Lake Forest has been postponed until Wednesday.

[Greek Tragedy]

Q, thanks for the update.  Glad to see the IWU games and tournament on.  I drove back from Minneapolis yesterday, too, just to see these games in person!! 

Best to all CCIW chatsters for the holidays upcoming.  Be safe out there.

IWU'70

Thanks, Greg. I assume Point came down last night, regardless of what the weather was going to be like.

[Greek Tragedy]

Shocker at IWU. Stout goes on a 24-6 run to close out the game after being down 10 with seven to go.

https://stoutbluedevils.com/news/2025/11/29/mens-basketball-blue-devils-stun-6-illinois-wesleyan-with-late-surge-on-the-road.aspx

[Greek Tragedy]

The camera work is so unbelievably bad at the end of regulation, OT and 2 OT. They just completely brain fart in the last few seconds.

[Gotberg]

NPU win with a typical 3pt last second shot in triple OT.

https://x.com/EliHershkovich/status/1994932547869176245?t=mFzn_cXBzeNh8RL5qpR4sw&s=19

[Gregory Sager]

Triple overtime final from the crackerbox:

North Park 115
UW-Stevens Point 114

Kolden Vanlandingham: 39 pts (14-23 FG, 5-10 trey), 10:5 a:to
William Bates: 19 pts
Jalen Houston: 15 pts
Julian Campbell: 15 pts
Lazario Cornish: 13 pts
Mike Vuckovic: 7 rebs, 6:4 a:to

I didn't think any game I would ever call would top the Ocean-Johnson-breaks-the-backboard game at Elmhurst a few seasons ago, but this one beat it easily. The Vikings just looked woebegone in the opening half: UWSP crushed them on the board by a 21-8 tally, and the Pointers ran a far more efficient offense while the Vikings just looked static on O. It was a 17-point lead for the Pointers at the half, and I honestly had my doubts that the Vikings could get back into the game against an opponent this good. But, boy, did the Vikings show a ton of moxie. They fought their way back into it, caught up at the end of regulation (both teams had a chance to win it from the line in the closing seconds but couldn't do it), hung tough with UWSP through the ups and downs of three overtimes, and then, down by 113-112 with three seconds left in the third overtime, they fouled UWSP's best free-throw shooter, Josiah Butler (averaging 91% from the stripe for the season). He missed the first, made the second, and then, after expending their final timeout, the Vikings threw two passes up the floor to freshman Marquis Vance -- who hit a 25-foot sideline trey an eyeblink ahead of the final buzzer, a shot eerily reminiscent of Dom Trelenberg's at Illinois College a few days ago (basically the exact same spot on the floor, with the same amount of time available) to give the Vikings the win.

Quite a game, to say the least.

[iwu70]

At the Shirk, a very quick, perimeter oriented UW Stout team beat IWU 66-58.  IWU was up 10 with seven minutes to go, but Stout came roaring back for the win. 

For Stout:
Creger 21
Shore 16 
Shooting 47%, 36 from three, 72% from the charity stripe.

For IWU:
Cleveland 24 and 14 with 4 blocks and 6 steals
Colak 10
Funk 8
Niego 8

IWU shooting only 36%, 13% from Trey, and 55%, 11-20 from the line.

Most important news out of this game is 2 minutes in, Josh Fridman got tangled up with one of the Stout bigmen along the baseline and was injured, likely a shoulder dislocation.  He was attended to by the health and training staff most of the first half, sent out of the arena and did not return.  I imagine this is a significant injury that will take some time to heal.  A big loss for the Titans. 

IWU now 5-1 and has an early CCIW game with Carthage up next, up at Kenosha. 

IWU '70