Game Notes: Illinois Wesleyan University @ North Central College (1/22/14)

Final Score
IWU 115, NCC 106

Game Summary
Playing without head coach Mia Smith, the Titans (12-5, 6-0) took early control with a good inside-out game, but they couldn't shake off a good early start from the Cardinals (9-8, 2-4), who took a six point lead four minutes into the game. The Titans roared back thought and led by as many as eight before the Cardinals shot their way back into it. Another Wesleyan surge was met by one from the Cardinals, and at halftime, North Central had forced a game with 5 ties and 10 lead changes, and only trailed 53-50. The Titans came out of the locker room focused in though, and outscored the Cardinals 24-11 in the first five minutes of the second half. Wesleyan's lead ballooned over 20 to as high as 24 before the Cardinals surged late to cut the final margin to single digits, even if it meant the Cardinals would lose for the first time this season despite topping 100 points.
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Key Stats

• IWU: 78 points in the paint, 40 points on the fast break. We had North Central's SID Clark Teuscher working the online stats for the game last night, and he was able to compile breakdowns of the types of baskets, which paints quite the picture of what happened last night. Especially in the second half, the Titans made the right passes in the halfcourt and were able to either break the press or force Cardinal turnovers for easy chances at the other end.
• Kelsey Cooling (NCC): 10-15 FG (7-9 3PT), 1-3 FT; 28 pts, 1 reb, 1 ast, 3 stl. Kelsey's 28 points? A career high. Her seven three's? A school record, breaking a six-way tie (page hasn't been updated). Every time she shot last night, you all but knew it was going in. You could argue she singlehandedly kept the Cardinals in the game in the first half. A sublime performance.
• IWU: 6 players with 10+ points, 3 players with 20+ points. The theme this year for Cardinal opponents has been balance. Colleen McMahon tied with Kelsey Cooling for the game leader with 28 points (on 13-17 shooting!). Shelby Jackson shot 10 of 19 and had 23 points, while Gabrielle Holness came off the bench to score 21 points on 8 of 12 shooting, including a pair of ridiculous reverse layups. Katy Seibring had 15 points, while Lexi Baltes and Kasey Reaber each had 12.

North Central System Watch

• NCC 3PT: 17-38 (44.7%). Even with a loss, this is very encouraging. The Cardinals have started to catch fire in the past couple games. The first half was absolutely incredible, as they shot 11 of 22 from deep (Kelsey Cooling was 5-6 at this stage, by the way). Then in the second half, they regressed to 6-16. When you regress from 50 percent to 37.5 percent... you'll take that every day of the week. With this performance, the team is now over 30 percent from beyond the arc for the season to date.
• IWU Turnovers: 20. Obviously this is lower than you'd like, but IWU is a disciplined team. The officials let a lot go, with not many fouls called early, and only blatant travels were whistled. The Cardinals did notch 10 steals though, with Kelsey Cooling leading the team with three, and Bobbi Johns picked up a pair, taking her up to 45 on the season.

CCIW Watch

• @ Carthage 71 (15-2, 6-0), Elmhurst 33 (10-7, 2-4)
• @ Millikin 76 (7-10, 1-5), Augustana 66 (5-12, 1-5)
• @ North Park 73 (10-7, 3-3), Wheaton 68 (12-4, 3-3) (OT)

Final Thoughts

Photo taken by NCC Sports Information Department.

This game was kind of a double-edged sword. When Wesleyan called a timeout with 11:35 left in the first half, I turned to the official scorer and flat out told him that we could beat Wesleyan. The way this team played in the first half, we could have. Some of the Titans players definitely seemed frustrated at times. The official scorer expressed concern about the halftime break killing the rhythm and momentum, and it's certainly possible that happened. Even so, this team never quit despite the multiple easy baskets Wesleyan got. It's been almost seven years since the last time the Cardinals beat the Titans. The only time it's really been close since then was a 10-point loss in 2009, so to me, this shows that the gap is narrowing.

North Central travels to archrival Wheaton College on Saturday to close out the first run through the CCIW gauntlet. Right now, there are two obvious elite teams in Illinois Wesleyan and Carthage, who face off for temporary control of the conference on Saturday. Wheaton got upset by North Park last night too, which puts those two teams as the other teams that would play in the conference tournament if the season ended today. North Central and Elmhurst are just a game out of the tournament though, and if North Central can keep up its scoring binge, they could steal a spot or two, but that Wheaton game is going to be incredibly tough.