Game Notes: St. Mary's College @ North Central College (11/21/14)

Final Score
NCC 100, St. Mary's 84

Game Summary
It was a fairly slow start for the Cardinals (1-0), who missed their first several threes to start the game and the Belles (0-3) took advantage to build an early 9-2 lead. The threes started to drop from there and the press started to force turnovers. A 19-4 run got the Cardinals well in front and helped them stake a 44-33 halftime lead. North Central came out stronger in the second half and pushed the lead to about 20 halfway through. The Belles would narrow the gap to as closets 13 with about five minutes to go, but the Cardinals were able to step up late to put it away.

Key Stats

• Miranda Grizzafi (NCC): 5-11 FG (all 3PT), 1-1 FT; 16 pts, 4 reb (3 off), 1 ast, 1 blk. Miranda got the first triple of the year to kick things off, and was shooting well the rest of the night. She also crashed the offensive glass, giving the Cardinals extra chances.
• Jamie Cuny (NCC): 5-15 FG (3-11 3PT), 1-2 FT; 14 pts, 9 reb (1 off), 1 ast, 2 stl, 4 blk. The U of I-Springfield transfer and Naperville native had a good first game, launching plenty of shots from outside, but she also provided good interior defense and reach on the press. She hit a layup with 10 seconds left to hit the century mark. 
• Ariana Paul (SMC): 9-13 FG, 2-4 FT; 20 pts, 20 reb (4 off), 2 ast, 2 STL, 1 blk. As is the case with NCC's system, opposing forwards typically score a lot, but a 20-20 game doesn't happen that often. She did have five turnovers however, which didn't help.

North Central System Watch

• SMC Turnovers: 42. The Belles turned it over 28 times in the first half, obviously struggling with the pressure. Every player who saw time save one had at least one giveaway. NCC did force one ten second call, and 21 of the turnovers came on NCC steals; Bobbi Johns led the team with four, while Mayson Whipple had three.
• NCC 3PT: 16-67 (23.9%). The NCAA record for attempts is 68, so they fell just short, but did set a program record. After missing a bunch to start, the Cardinals finished 7-35 at the break. The second half was better (9-32), but still not a great start. Most of the shots were open looks, so I imagine those will fall as the season goes on.
• NCC Charges Drawn: 4. This is a new feature I'm adding this year. I told Coach Roof before the season started that this should be an official stat. I've been a proponent of this since my days at Aurora Christian, where charges were kept as an official stat at least until 2010 (I'm not sure with the new regime if it still is). I didn't catch who, but they drew a pair in the first half. Therese Pettersson drew a pair early in the second half before fouling out.

Early Game Notes
Millsaps 55, Trinity International 31. Trinity did hold some early leads, but the Majors were in control most of the contest. Kala Freeman led the way with 16 points and six rebounds, while Sam Perez had a great floor game (9 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals). Amari Parham led the Trojans with 11 points, but has seven of TIU's 27 turnovers.

Final Thoughts
Fun officiating notes tonight: NCC was assessed an early technical. They had a player wearing a wrong jersey in the book, which is a two-shot tech. But apparently, you can only get assessed one per game. We learned this when we caught a second one in the second half. Also, apparently it's now against the rules for a player to step out of bounds and touch the ball right away once you're back in bounds.

Overall, not the best start, but a win is a win. NCC will plays Millsaps for the title tomorrow night at 5:00.