Game Notes: North Park University @ North Central College (1/4/14)

Final Score
NPU 92, NCC 71

Game Summary
The Vikings (8-4, 1-0) seemed to have an early grip on the game, scoring early against the press, but the Cardinals (7-5, 0-1) stuck with them early. The game was tied at 10 about five and a half minutes in, but then North Park went on a run and in ten minutes had built an 18 point lead. The Cardinals closed the half on a little run of their own, narrowing the gap to eight at 42-34 going into the break. The two teams were about even for the first nine minutes of the half when the Cardinals' Sofia Svensson took a spill on a hard foul and she had to leave the game. After a quick warmup following a long delay, play resumed. The Cardinals pulled to within four at 67-63 with 8:42 to play. The Vikings then went on a 19-3 run in the next three and a half minutes to put the game out of reach.

Key Stats

• NPU: 5 players in double figures (2 with double-doubles). Brittany Pittas led the Vikings with 19 points on 9-16 shooting. Rachel Torres and Dominikque Williams had the double-doubles, with 14-11 and 12-12, respectively. Amani Davis had 13 points, including a 7-9 night at the line, and Nicole Kruckman, North Park's star center, had 10 points despite playing just 12 minutes due to foul trouble. Normally against the Cardinals one or two players have outstanding games. Rarely do we see such balance executed against this team.
• NCC: 20-74 FG (27.0%). To quote Gregg Easterbrook, "Ye gods." They shot 8-40 in the first half and didn't do much in the second half to improve that. A lot of credit has to go to North Park's stout defense, that didn't allow the Cardinals many easy looks at the basket. At the same time, a lot of the shots North Central put up were ugly, especially inside. A lot of that was due to good defense by the Vikings, but still.
• Larynn Shumaker (NCC): 7-10 FG, 10-12 FT; 24 pts, 6 reb (4 ofr), 1 stl. On a night when no one else really did anything, Larynn continues to shine down low. Whenever Nicole Kruckman was in the game, Larynn couldn't really get open, but otherwise when she had space she feasted on North Park's defense. Unfortunately, six turnovers for her combined with a lot of telegraphed passes or poor decision making prevented her from doing more damage.

North Central System Watch

• NCC 3PT: 6-29 (20.7%). Ick. Obviously a lot of the shots weren't there, since North Central likes to shoot around 45 a game. But when they did get shots, they didn't fall. The looks from deep largely weren't too terrible, but just didn't fall. Obviously though, when you shoot this bad from deep, you won't win many games.
• NPU Turnovers: 40. Truth be told, this number shocked me. I thought for sure the Cardinals would have more (they had 34). Officials called a fair number of traveling violations, but the Cardinals still managed 22 steals. Bobbi Johns led the way with five. Maryssa Cladis had four, while Marion Boeck and Uzuri Williams each had three.

CCIW Watch

I'm going to implement this part this season to keep an eye on the standings. For the most part, it will just be scores and records of the teams.

• Illinois Wesleyan (7-5, 1-0) 82, Elmhurst (8-4, 0-1) 55
• Carthage (10-2, 1-0) 88, Augustana (4-8, 0-1) 52
• Wheaton (10-1, 1-0) 71, Millikin (6-6, 0-1) 60

Final Thoughts

First and foremost, my thoughts and prayers are with Sofia Svensson, who had to wait for paramedics to get her out of the game when she took that nasty spill in the second half. She's already missed three games for various injuries, and I can only assume would be out for at least a couple more weeks, if not the whole season at this point.

As for the game itself... ugh. I feel like this was a game the Cardinals needed to have. You want to start CCIW play off right, and especially after the injury I was hoping for a "Win it for Sofia" theme to emerge. For a bit, it seemed like it might, but they couldn't sustain it. You won't win games turning it over 34 times and shooting as poorly as the Cardinals did last night. This team has stretches where they play really well, but other times where the wheels fall completely off. A lot of that does need to be credited to North Park; they obviously practiced really well to beat the scheme, and they did get a ton of open looks as the game went along. But the Cardinals didn't help matters much.

North Central hits the road for the next three games, with trips to Decatur, Kenosha and Rock Island. It's not out of the question to see the Cardinals come back home on January 18th at 2-2 in CCIW play and take on a tough Elmhurst team.