Game Notes: Dominican University @ North Central College (12/15/12)

Final Score
NCC 110, Dominican 68

Game Summary
In a more tightly contested game than Wednesday's affair, the Cardinals (6-3) started at a much slower pace this afternoon, even trailing the Stars (0-9) in the opening minutes before starting to figure things out. It was nonetheless a sloppy game as the Cardinals kept the Stars in it, not opening up a double digit lead until less than 4 minutes left in the first half. They went on a mini-run in the final couple minutes to open up a 54-38 halftime lead. The Cardinals returned from the locker room a little more sluggish, even seeing the Stars pull back to within single digits before the press just became too overwhelming and the lead gradually built. Triple digits were much less of a dramatic part of the game, as the Cardinals reached 100 points with 4:36 to play. Their 110 points tonight broke the single game school record (which I mistakenly said on Wednesday was 103, it's actually 105 from the 1984-85 team).

Key Stats

• Larynn Shumaker (NCC): 7-8 FG, 2-3 FT, 16 pts, 10 reb (6 ofr), 1 ast, 1 stl. Larynn flat out dominated in the paint. She's 5'10" and had some dominating post moves today, especially early on. The Cardinals have a good interior presence, but with this system you won't hear a lot about it.
• Bobbi Johns (NCC): 1-3 FG (all 3PT), 3 pts, 4 reb, 7 ast, 4 stl. Not dominating on the offensive end, but she had a great floor game. She quietly racked up those assists in spreading the ball around and made some great plays on defense to come up with steals or knock the ball loose for teammates.
• Katie Budz (DOM): 7-15 FG (2-4 3PT), 4-4 FT, 20 pts, 4 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl. Budz was easily the smallest player on the floor at 5'1", but she's incredibly quick and was able to get some easy baskets in breaking the Cardinals' press as well as hitting those couple threes and playing decent defense.

North Central System Watch

• Line Changes: about 40. I forgot to get the final tally from the official scorer before I left this afternoon to go catch the men's game at Benedictine, but Coach Roof was in top substitution form today. The leader in minutes was Emily Murphy with 19. Given the defense the Cardinals play, you have to give these girls some rest on the bench.
• NCC 3pt: 13-45 (28.9%). We hit the mark Coach Roof set for a per-game average of attempts this season, but a lot of these weren't falling. If we're hitting around 40 percent of these (I would say 15-20 threes a game), this team is probably going to be fine, especially if the defense is playing extremely well.
• Dominican Turnovers: 43. Three different Stars had 8 turnovers apiece, which is a ton. Of these 43 giveaways, the Cardinals picked up 34 steals (Michelle Todd had 8 of those). They were able to get in the passing lanes for much of the game or force a lot of passes by Dominican, turning the tables from last year's squad.

Final Thoughts 
Coach Roof asked me after the game today if it's more fun to announce their games this year as opposed to last year. It definitely is, for two reasons. One is because we're winning, and that always makes it fun, and the system we play in allows me to yell "THREEEEEEEE!" a lot, which is my favorite part of doing public address and trying to provide a home court advantage.

That being said, games like today made me worry a bit about this team as we approach the gauntlet that is the CCIW. When we're hitting threes, this team is all but unstoppable, and I think for the purposes of this system easy layups at the other end don't matter too much. Unfortunately, they make things very uneasy. The Cardinals played up on everybody, not leaving a safety back, and Dominican took advantage of this with several home run passes that led to a ton of easy points early in the game.

As the official scorer and my old friend and mentor Evan Bredeson were saying today, that's fine when you're hitting threes, but if the Cardinals play like they did early today against the cream of the CCIW, we're going to be in trouble. Teams like Wesleyan (even though the defending national champs aren't quite as good so far this year), North Park and Carthage would give this team fits. I still think mixing in a conventional 2-3 zone a little more would be helpful, but we'll see how much this team continues to gel.

The Cardinals are off to Las Vegas next weekend for the Las Vegas Hoopla tournament, then have some time off before opening CCIW play at Elmhurst on January 2nd. My next report will likely come Saturday, January 5th when we host Wheaton. The Cardinals have locked up a winning non-conference record this season, but they went 6-5 in that stretch last year before they hit the Gauntlet. Hopefully we can go in with a little more confidence this year.