Game Notes: Carthage College @ North Central College (1/9/13)

Final Score
Carthage 85, NCC 74

Game Summary
This was a much closer game than Saturday's game and started much better as the Cardinals (7-7, 0-3) went on a 15-4 run in the first 5 minutes before Carthage (11-3, 3-0) called a timeout to stop the bleeding. It stopped and then some as the Lady Reds slowly got back in the game. They took a 23-22 lead and never really looked back as they led 45-37 at the break. The 2nd half was a seesaw battle as the Cardinals kept it close, even down to a one possession game at multiple stages. Ultimately they couldn't make the final push as Carthage pulled away in the final minutes.

Key Stats

• Cailee Corcoran (CAR): 6-19 FG, 3-5 FT, 15 pts, 24 reb (7 ofr), 1 ast, 1 stl. Wow. This is a North Central team that puts up a high volume of shots so there are a ton of rebounds available, but this is the highest total I think I've ever seen working a women's game. Corcoran didn't shoot particularly well, but her baskets were all of the easy variety pretty much. That was compounded by a career game off the bench for Michelle Wenzel (22-12 on 11-15 shooting).
• NCC Free Throws: 15-24 (62.5%). Considering how close this game was for most of the second half, even converting 4 or 5 of those missed freebies would have changed the whole dynamic of that game. This team hasn't shot too well from the stripe, and you could argue that that, along with some other problems cost this team a win.
• Sophie Newson (NCC): 4-10 FG (3-7 3PT), 11 pts, 4 reb (1 ofr), 2 stl. Sophie probably shot the best out of anyone on North Central, even from 3, and once again took a couple charges last night. I'm going to miss watching her play; she has the heart and energy you love to see and is willing to step up and take a charge, a skill lost on a lot of other players these days.

North Central System Watch

• Line Changes: 40
• Carthage Turnovers: 30. We took a team that doesn't turn it over much and made them pay a little bit. Of those 30 turnovers, 14 came of Cardinal steals. There were also a lot of traveling violations called last night, especially on the Cardinals who turned it over 28 times. Sloppy game at some points.
• NCC 3pt: 11-42 (26.2%). Considering how bad the Wheaton game was, it wasn't hard to improve those numbers. As a whole though the team shot under 30 percent, which isn't going to get it done a lot of nights.

Final Thoughts

First and foremost, thoughts are with NCC's Lauren Hernandez, who missed much of the second half with what we assume was a knee injury, and I hope she makes a quick and full recovery.

On the whole, this was a pretty fun game to work given how tight it was most of the night. I continue to worry defensively though. I know the idea is to sacrifice points on the defensive side for a shot at more turnovers and thus more shots, but Carthage was consistently breaking the press all night and getting easy baskets. Yet even with all those opportunities they couldn't pull away. You have to give NCC credit: these girls played their hearts out. Unfortunately as Coach Roof said to me after the game last night, "Close doesn't count. Not in this league."

It was a rough night overall for basketball though, as the top-ranked men's team dropped a tough one up in Kenosha for their first loss of the season. There's a reason I call the CCIW a gauntlet. We're back into it on Saturday as Augie comes to town, and I'll have a write up on Sunday morning for that women's game and hopefully a better result.