WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Final from southwestern Michigan:

North Park 67
Kalamazoo 41

NPU won this one going away, holding the Hornets to only 15 points in the first half and 26% FG shooting on the night. Amanda Reese once again was able to empty her bench early; nobody played more than 25 minutes, and all sixteen players who dressed for the Park got into the game, with thirteen of them scoring. Bridgette Gray led the Vikings with 10 points, while Kamauria Acree was the leading rebounder with seven.

NPU's next game is Saturday afternoon against Dominican. The Stars will be a step up in class for the Vikings over their last two opponents; Dominican will come into the game with a 6-3 overall record and a share of first place in the NAthCon South at 4-1.

[Mr. Ypsi]

YIKES!!  The new poll is out: not only does the CCIW not have a team in the Top 25, we don't have a team receiving even one vote!

If this has ever happened before, I can't recall it.  Let's step it up!

[iwu70]

A remarkable game at the Shirk last eve.  IWU over ONU 126-98, setting all kinds of records for points scored, total points scored, field goals and assists etc.  It was more like a track meet than a basketball game.  My hat is off to the Titans for weathering the storm of ONU's pressure and 50+ 3 bombs from ONU and breaking their press consistently and well, leading by over 30 in the second half.  My hat is also off for the athleticism and fitness of both teams.  Truly amazing.  ONU throws a new five into the fray every 3-4 minutes, so it is pretty intense throughout.  But the Titans were the much much better team this time.  Special kudos go to Britt Hasselbring, Karen Solari and Olivia Lett who all had excellent games in the rough and tumble of the ONU onslaught!  This may be the turning point in the IWU season, getting back to amazingly high-quality play against an excellent, if unusual opponent.  Titans are now 4-4.  (all four losses to top 25 teams).  Kudos to Coach Smith and her staff for preparing the Titans well for this game.  Lett had 27 and 4-5 other Titans also in double figures.  I was sitting next to the person doing the "live stats" and I think his fingers are now down to stumps. 

IWU plays U of St. Francis on Saturday, the 17th, at 5 p.m.  The banner raising ceremony will be just before this game, between the men's Wash U game and the women's contest vs. USF.  Another excellent banner in the rafters of The Shirk.  Congrats to the team members of the 2010-11 team, clearly the best in IWU women's basketball history so far. 

Congrats to Titan Eliud Gonzales on the men's side for CCIW Player of the Week! 

IWU70 

P.S.  Ypsi, I think CCIW will get a ranked team once it is clear who is leading the conference race.  But, the pre-CCIW schedule has not been easy or kind to any of the leading teams this year.  Several have commented that the CCIW is "down" this year on both the men's and women's sides.  I'm not so sure about that, as I think Augie and Wheaton, and perhaps IWU on the men's side will still be very competititive come tournament time.  Will one or two of them go far in the national tournament, well, who knows?  On the women's side, I'm pretty sure Wheaton, Carthage and IWU are easily good national tournament-level teams, should they qualify via the AQ or at-large picks.  IWU will certainly come in, if they make it, very battle-tested, hardened by the toughest of competition in pre-CCIW and also CCIW race play.  These teams may come in with 5-8 losses.  It's going to be a very exciting season, conference race.  Stay tuned.  ms

[RogK]

In addition to those complimented by iwu70, most or all of the rest of the Titans did quite well last night. Lexi Baltes, Melissa Gardner and Colleen McMahon were excellent contributors in the vital area of ballhandling.
Mia Smith gets applause for preparing her team very well; the Titans were very sharp mentally and maintained excellent energy. At the defensive end, IWU allowed Olivet Naz only a few good "looks" at the basket from either 3 land or closer in.
ONU's coach by now probably regrets scheduling IWU for the Tigers' 3rd game in 4 days (the other 2 in Ohio). ONU was the tired team this time. They usually wear out the other team, but it was IWU who wore them out.
The Titans got a good scoring boost off the bench, too, including a combined 32 pts in 27:00 from Taylor Reaber, Katy Seibring and Amy Burton.
IWU gave up 98 pts, but no one in the gym would suggest that they were  deficient defensively. It was just a very fast-paced game.

[bblover]

I was at the Elmhurst game last night; they played Rockford at home. When I walked in the door, there was 17 minutes left in the half, and Elmhurst was up 9-0. With 13 minutes left, it was 20-0. Almost everything was coming from the inside, mostly easy baskets (think of layups in warmups). With 12 and half minutes left, Rockford finally scored. Still, Elmhurst smartly kept going inside and scoring literally at will. With three minutes left in the half, Elmhurst was up 24. I was planning on leaving at the intermission. Then, Elmhurst stopped playing defense, and Rockford scored the final ten points of the half, the last two clearly coming after the buzzer. (Why the other two refs did not confer with the official that called the shot good is a mystery to me. This is typical in college.) At the half, the score was 36-22. Tess Godhardt for Elmhurst had 15 points on 7-8 (inside shots); Merklein had 7. There were just 9 threes attempted by the two teams; Elmhurst made 1-3, Rockford was 0-6. There was only 10 fouls called, 5 on each team. The low number probably had something to do with the general lack of defense by both teams. Rockford, which has struggled this year with a very thin team (i.e., not many players in total and few that can score), showed me something in those final minutes, and I decided to stay a while longer. Believe it or not, Rockford whittled the lead down to 10 with 18 minutes left. That was it. They never got any closer. The final score was 61-46. The second half was essentially a draw. As in the first half, most of the points came from the inside.

For the game, Tess Godhardt had 21. Merklein (who played 37 minutes) and Ney both netted 12. Fiona McMahon was force on the defensive boards, taking down 13. While I have not watched much basketball this year, it appears that Elmhurst can clearly score in multiple ways. When January arrives, they will clearly have to improve their defense, especially in the interior, if they plan on making the playoffs.

[RogK]

Congratulations to Millikin's Heather Pruemer, CCIW Player of the Week!
Augustana, by the way, picked up their 7th win, a 33 point margin over Aurora. Augie ruled the rebounds, 59-23! It's starting to look like Augie will have a better season than last year's 7-18 (ha).
Carthage sped out to a 50-14 halftime lead and upended Beloit 79-49. The very reliable Cailee Corcoran scored 16 in her 20:00.

[Mr. Ypsi]

IWU is finally getting a break from such a tough schedule: St. Francis.  The Titans jumped out to a 20-6 lead and kept their feet on the gas pedal - it is now 48-27 at the half.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Actually, I just learned that St. Francis is on an 8-game winning streak (though I have no idea the quality of the opponents).  Perhaps it is not a break in the tough schedule, but rather a break-out game for the Titans!

[Mr. Ypsi]

Final: IWU 83, USF 64.

The Titans never trailed, and led by double-digits for the last 34 minutes.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 73
Dominican 53

Roxie Jones: 14 pts
Antionette Collman: 11 pts, 11 rebs
Dana Christensen: 11 pts
Deima Thompson: 10 pts

NPU cruised to a surprisingly easy win against Dominican today. I thought that the Stars would put up more of a fight, as they came into the game with a 6-3 record, but the Vikings clearly outclassed them. The Vikings executed their halfcourt offense very well today, played very strong defense, and absolutely killed the Stars on the boards, 46-26. Anti Collman had one of the best games of her career, and Deima Thompson brought some impressive energy into the game; she didn't even play in the first half, and she got her ten points in only ten minutes of game time in the second half. Also good to see Dana Christensen getting her shooting stroke back, as the Park will need it badly when it faces Chicago in a couple of weeks (and then CCIW foes following that game).

NPU travels to Aurora on Tuesday evening for the team's final game before Christmas. The Vikings are now on a roll, having won their last three games by 20 or more points, and it'd be great to see that continue against the 2-9 Spartans on Tuesday.

[iwu70]

Yes, the Titans way way too much for USF last Saturday.  I watched the game after the wonderful ceremony to "raise the banner" in the rafters of the Shirk, for last year's Final Four team.  (Check out the picture on the IWU official sports website).  Great to see all the seniors of that group back, good wishes from all the fans, and well-deserved appreciation to that most successful and winning team, with four straight CCIW championships and the home Final Four appearance under their collective belts.  Great stuff!!!

USF only had 7 players to the floor and IWU was able to run in and out, run and jump with 15 players in the first half alone.  It was never close.  IWU is gaining strength, getting all the needed players back from injury and illness.  Olivia Lett, Melissa Gardner and Britt Hasselbring all had very strong games.  Olivia had 21, Melissa shooting the three ball well, and Britt running the floor, running the show, defending and dishing.  The best development of course was the full return of Karen Solari who started her first game since coming back from her knee injury and surgery.  She had a strong game, rebounding, defending and scoring 9 points.  Now Mia can share post time with Shelby Jackson (also getting back to full strength) and Amy Burton.  Both played well for their minutes, in the 10-15 minute range.  Good to see all the key players coming back, getting healthy, off the injured reserve list!   Olivia Lett is such a skilled a player . . . and all the others are gaining in confidence, and in knowing their roles and strengths.  Good things will continue to come to the Titans during the CCIW season. 

Not sure if 7-4 is possible for the pre-CCIW phase, but I'm beginning to believe it might be.  The Titans played very well against a very out-girled squad in USF.  It was an easier win than I expected given the recent successes of the USF team.

IWU now has two games in California, (at Whittier) in late December, before returning to open the CCIW season on January 4th vs. Wheaton.  From the frying pan into the fire, it would seem.

Again, thanks to Mia, her staff and all the team members for some very skilled and spirited basketball so far, esp. that remarkable "track meet" game vs. ONU, an incredible 126-98 marathon game.  Amazing.  Record setting.   

Go TITANS!!!  Keep it rolling . . .

Happy Holidays and safe travels to all.  Have fun in sunny Souther California . . . bring home two Ws. 

IWU 70

[iwu70]

Big congrats to Olivia Lett, CCIW "Player of the Week" for a second time this young season.   I guess the NAIA style-of-play agrees with this talented Titan. 

Merry Christmas, Olivia!

IWU70

[RogK]

The CCIW has won 13 in a row, bringing the composite record to 51-25.
Augustana finished its non-conf schedule at 8-3.
Elmhurst upped their's to 9-1 last night.
Millikin notched 2 more wins, thanks in part to fine play from Crystal Zeigler : in 35 total minutes, she tallied 27 pts and 18 rebs. Plus, she can list the 50 state capitals according to relative humidity (I just made that up, but maybe she could).

[Gregory Sager]

Final from the western suburbs:

North Park 80
Aurora 55

Dominikque Williams: 13 pts
Kamauria Acree: 12 pts
Roxie Jones: 11 pts
Antionette Collman: 10 pts, 8 rebs
Deima Thompson: 10 pts

Aurora's very bad -- the Spartans are now 2-10 and were blown out previously by Wheaton, Augustana, and North Central -- so this score doesn't surprise me. Given Aurora's helter-skelter style of play, I'm just happy that the Vikings got out of Thornton Gym and back on the bus injury-free. No Viking played more than 23 minutes, as for the fourth straight game Amanda Reese was able to play all sixteen of her players. That streak will come to an abrupt end ten days from now, of course, when NPU (6-4) tangles with undefeated and second-ranked Chicago.

[Mr. Ypsi]

At the half, IWU 32, Whittier 27.  MAYBE!

On livestats, the picture is the IWU Titan, but the name is Regis, and the players in the box score are definitely NOT Titans, so (although all other indications are that it is IWU playing at Whittier) take the score with caution!

I've seen many screwups with livestats, but this is a first!