Game Notes: Wheaton College @ North Central College (2/11/12)

Final Score
Wheaton 72, NCC 54

Summary
The Cardinals (6-17, 0-12) started out of the gate okay, leading 8-5 before Wheaton (16-7, 9-3)turned it on and went on a 20-0 run. The Cardinals tried to answer back, getting the deficit back to single digits before seeing Wheaton take a 38-24 lead into the break. Despite the score, the first half was pretty competitive. But in the second half the Thunder were able to step up their defense and slowly build the lead to over 20 points before calling off the dogs late.

Key Stats

• Wheaton: 8-15 3PT in the 1st half. I would dare to make the argument that the Cardinals outplayed the Thunder in the first half. They seemed to hustle more, make some good plays on defense, and hit a few big shots here and there. They might have led, if not only trailed by a few points were it not for the fact that Wheaton was unconscious from deep. They only went 2-5 from beyond the arc in the second half, but when your opponent is hitting everything from downtown, it's hard to stay in the ballgame. Credit Wheaton for hitting the shots all night, especially when given the open looks.
• Sophie Newson (NCC): 5-15 FG (2-6 3PT), 4-4 FT, 16 pts, 11 reb, 3 ast, 1 stl. Sophie looked more like that all-around player I know she can be tonight, especially in the first half. At the break she was 4 of 7 from the field with 9 points and 5 boards. Simple math tells you that her shots stopped falling in the second half. It's been a constant problem all year with the Cardinals, but even despite that Sophie played a great game tonight.
• Breanna Bohlen (WC): 7-10 FG (4-4 3PT), 0-1 FT, 18 pts, 1 reb, 1 ast. The prime example of why NCC lost. Donning the Rip Hamilton mask, she was left open a few times on the perimeter and took advantage. Other times the Cardinals did get over to close, but she just kept hitting shots off the bench. You need your role players to come in and execute their jobs. Bohlen did just that tonight.

Cardinal Turnover Watch
I had the offer of traveling with the team to Illinois Wesleyan on Wednesday to call the game for WONC since there really weren't any people available to call the game. I didn't take it, and instead Geoffy decided to make the trek down there and enjoy the sack lunch on the ride home. What I'm sure he didn't enjoy was the fact that the Cardinals turned it over 34 times in their 40 point loss to the Titans. Considering that, plus the Wheaton factor, we at the table set the over/under for turnovers at 21.5. I took the under, fearing I'd be wrong. But true to their average, they only committed 20 turnovers tonight, a lot of them bad passes, plus a couple offensive fouls. To their credit, they did force 15 Thunder turnovers, including a couple offensive fouls and a pair of 5 second calls.

Final Thoughts
This Cardinal team is better than their 6-17 record. I know from the flashes I've seen. But what I also notice is that this team has 2 major flaws. First and foremost is where they tend to shoot themselves in the foot (tonight, going about 7 minutes without a basket while Wheaton scored 20 points in that same stretch) by either cold shooting nights, poor shot selection, or most commonly, giving the ball up in bunches. The second problem is that this is a first half team. They stay in the ball game in the first half (even tonight, you felt like they could come back in the 2nd half) only to completely fall apart after the intermission. I don't know if they don't have the energy to play the full 40 minutes, lose their focus and drive after halftime, or what the case is, but for whatever reason, this team doesn't come out of the locker room ready to climb out of the hole.

With all this being said, this team has talented players. With a good offseason, some recruiting help, and a year of experience for the young contributors (think Bobbi Johns, Lauren Hernandez, Callie Rezin, Larynn Shumaker), this team will be a little bit better next year.

Next week is the final week of the regular season. Tuesday (men) and Wednesday (women), the Cardinals make the trek to what Geoffy calls North Park Middle School (relying on his word for this, I've never been there) before Senior Day a week from today against Millikin.