Game Notes: Piedmont College @ North Central College (11/18/16)

Final Score
NCC 101, Piedmont 67

Game Summary
It was a very sluggish start for both teams, but the Lions (1-1) got the first basket of the game to take the early lead. The Cardinals (1-0) finally broke through shortly after that, scoring nine unanswered points to take control, and they led 18-8 after one quarter. Piedmont scored the first four points of the second quarter, but then the Cardinals broke open the floodgates, hitting five straight threes to key a 15-1 run that turned a six point lead into 20, and the Cardinals only kept it up from there, raising the advantage to 30 by halftime. The Lions managed to trim the deficit to about 23 a couple times in the third quarter, but the Cardinals kept hitting big shots to increase the lead, and the Lions were unable to get over the hump. North Central sealed the Big Macs in the final minute to the delight of a player's family sitting behind me.

Key Stats

• Anita Sterling (NCC): 4-7 FG (3-5 3PT), 4-6 FT; 15 pts, 4 reb, 2 stl. Anita isn't one of the primary offensive threats, but she has typically been pretty efficient on her shots. She led all scorers Friday night and did a nice job on the defensive end as well.
• Siarra O'Neill (NCC): 3-8 FG (2-4 3PT); 8 pts, 2 reb (2 off), 2 ast, 1 blk. The numbers here aren't outstanding, but I was really impressed with O'Neill's game on Friday. She was driving hard to the basket a lot and shot well from beyond the arc, while also playing solid defense.
• Jamie Cuny (NCC): 1-8 FG (all 3PT), 2-2 FT; 4 pts, 10 reb (4 off), 2 ast, 2 stl, 1 blk. Jamie struggled from beyond the arc in this one, but she was a dominant force on the glass and picked up her first block on the year. She wasn't playing safety as much as she has in prior years, so that explains the low block total on the night, but she did alter a number of other looks.

North Central System Watch

• Piedmont Turnovers: 44. I'm sure every team looks at tape of this North Central team going in, so teams know what they're in for, but Piedmont looked utterly unprepared for this game. They committed 16 turnovers in the first quarter alone and were up to 30 by halftime. Many of these were passes well off the mark, but the Cardinals also picked up 23 teals, led by Paula Zerante's four.
• NCC 3PT: 18-65 (27.7%). This is about par for the course for the Cardinals. They started very cold in this one, hitting just one of 11 attempts in the opening quarter. But they caught fire in the second quarter, hitting five in a row to break it open. If you're new to seeing stuff about North Central, know that they take this high number of threes every game, and percentage largely doesn't matter when you're taking that many; you'll eventually start hitting.
• NCC Charges Drawn: 1. Anita picked up one charge fairly early in the game, keeping up her usual pace from prior years. The Cardinals did commit a couple charges early in the game, however.

Final Thoughts
I'm going to be honest, I expected a closer game. Piedmont was very good last year, and while they lost a few key pieces, they beat a pretty good Birmingham Southern team earlier in the week at home. I just think they were utterly unprepared for the intensity of North Central's defense, and it showed in the turnover numbers.

During halftime of this game I got a chance to say hello to a couple of leaders from the legendary 2015 Cardinal team in Tess Godhardt and Bobbi Johns. Both were very impressed with the play of the freshmen on this squad, as was I overall. They're going to be very valuable going forward, and this team might be a huge threat to the CCIW, maybe even bigger than anticipated.

It's a fair amount of time on the road now for the Cardinals, as this was their lone non-conference home game. They play in the Battle of Chicago Avenue on Tuesday and aren't back home until December 3rd when we kick off CCIW play against Illinois Wesleyan.