Game Notes: Olivet College @ North Central College (11/16/12)

Final Score
Olivet 96, NCC 84

Game Summary
In what really was a pretty entertaining season opener, the Cardinals (0-1) got off to a pretty good start in a see-saw battle with the Comets (1-0), where the Cardinals eventually took a 38-37 lead. It was tied at 39 in the 1st half when the Comets went on a 13-0 run to take a commanding lead and never looked back. The Cardinals fell further behind in the 2nd half thanks to a Comet 12-0 run to start the half before making the game look closer than it was in garbage time.

Key Stats

• Olivet Bigs: 24-38, 58 pts, 25 reb: Sydney Radde, Stefanie Lang and Kaleigh Hill looked all but unstoppable last night as the Comets broke the press NCC was testing out constantly and the Cardinals unfortunately had no answer for them. With about 5 minutes left the Cardinals fell back into a 2-3 zone which stifled any further outbursts, but they left their mark... and then some.
• NCC Shooting: 26-75 (12-41 3pt), 20-39 FT: This was the new offense on display. Coach Roof told me a couple weeks ago she wanted the team to shoot about 45 threes a game and they came pretty close, those shots other than early in the game just weren't falling. Those free throw numbers scare me though. Lauren Hernandez in particular (6-13) struggled a bit last night, but missing 19 free throws as a team in a 12 point loss... you do the math.
• Kim Wilson (NCC): 5-9 FG (4-8 3pt), 6-6 FT, 20 pt, 4 ast: When I was looking at the roster before the season, Kim caught my eye as a 5'9" guard and hoped that she would have a good blend of skills. Turns out she can shoot pretty well. That was a bright spot along with Emily Murphy (13 points on 6-10 shooting).

Final Thoughts
Without totally overreacting to just one game, I think the Cardinals weren't too bad in their opener given that they were probably working out some kinks in the system. For a while the press was working and there seemed to be fresh bodies always out there. This team can run and gun a little bit, but there will be struggles when shots aren't falling (live by the 3, die by the 3) or when facing an opponent with some talented bigs who can run a little bit like Olivet has. I think Coach Roof can make the adjustments needed as the early part of the season goes on.


Bonus Thought
A big credit to the College of Faith, which just opened its doors this year. They started programs for football and men's basketball in their opening year just to get started, and for their first ever game made the trek up from Tennessee (or Arkansas, I'm not positive) to Naperville and apparently didn't get much, if any sleep before taking on #7 Hope in their first game. Posted to the left is the final score from that game, because people might think there was a typo if I just put the score in. Hope got a dunk off the opening tip and that just seemed to be the way things went yesterday. Credit to COF though for not giving up, making the trek, and being willing to play for 40 minutes against extremely tough odds. Good luck to them today against Illinois Institute of Technology.