Thursday, December 7, 2017

Game Notes: (WBK) Carthage College @ North Central College (12/6/17)

Final Score
NCC 81, Carthage 77 (OT)

Game Summary
This was a good one last night as the Lady Reds (4-3, 0-2) were able to hit some threes early to take control. But the Cardinals (1-5, 1-1) were able to get the ball inside for some easy baskets and keep the game close, trailing 21-17 after one quarter of play. The game turned into a bit of a seesaw affair in the second quarter, with the Cardinals grabbing a couple one point leads, but the Lady Reds were able to bounce back and took a 40-34 lead into the break. North Central didn't score in the final 2:07 of the first half, then went about five minutes into the third before finally scoring, but the Lady Reds were up by as many as 11 midway through the frame before taking a 52-43 lead after three. In the fourth though, the Cardinals stormed back, opening the frame on a 14-2 run to grab the lead, and the game turned into a tight one the rest of the way. North Central was unable to put the game away at the line, giving up a tying layup with about six seconds left and forcing an extra session when Mayson Whipple missed a three at the buzzer. North Central got a Maya Walls layup a minute into overtime, then added a three a couple minutes later to go up five. Carthage got four Autumn Kalis free throws to trim the lead to one, but the Cardinals got another layup from Walls and some free throws to put the game away for their first win of the season.


Key Stats
  • Maya Walls (NCC): 10-14 FG (3-7 3PT), 2-4 FT; 25 pts, 10 reb (5 off), 1 ast, 1 blk, 2 stl. Maya had easily the best game of her collegiate career to date, more than doubling her previous career high, and she did it both inside and outside. She hit some key threes to help keep the Cardinals in it, and helped put the game away down low. Her 10 rebounds were a team-high, as she picked up her second double-double of the season.
  • Lyndsay Brennan (NCC): 6-9 FG (0-1 3PT), 1-1 FT; 13 pts, 4 reb (1 off), 2 ast, 1 stl. Lyndsay was a key catalyst as well for helping keep the Cardinals in this one, relentlessly attacking the basket and getting several layups to go. She's a lefty, which adds to the difficulty of guarding her, and those lefty floaters were huge, including the go-ahead three point play in the fourth quarter.
  • Mayson Whipple (NCC): 4-13 FG (2-9 3PT), 3-4 FT; 13 pts, 5 reb, 8 ast, 1 blk. In terms of shot selection, not the best outing; I'd like to see more layup attempts than three attempts, but Mayson got some buckets when she needed to. More impressive was the fact that she did a beautiful job distributing the ball. Not only did she have eight assists last night, she didn't turn the ball over. When your star point guard takes care of the ball like that, you're going to win a lot of games.
North Central "System" Watch
  • Carthage Turnovers: 16. Again, given the nature of the Cardinals going away from the System a little bit, the turnover numbers won't be as high as they were in years past, but forcing 16 while only committing 11 is pretty good. The Cardinals got nine steals, paced by three from Jessica Dahle. Natali Dimitrova also took a charge, though not in the Anita Sterling sense; she got bowled over on a post move by Rachel Szydlowski.
  • NCC 3PT: 12-44 (27.3%). We're back into System territory in terms of offense, with a ton of threes getting jacked up, and they're hitting at about the clip they were in the System years, with roughly the right number of attempts. Ideally, you'd like to shoot better here, though a number of misses were of the in-and-out variety.
  • NCC FT: 7-12 (58.3%). I'm pretty sure this is an improvement on the season rate, but it's still not all that ideal. North Central could have put the game away with a little better free throw shooting down towards the end, though a 3-5 clip in the second half isn't awful. Nonetheless, it could have avoided the extra session. All in all though, the Cardinals hit at the end when they needed to, and I can't complain about that.
CCIW Scoreboard Watch
  • @ Illinois Wesleyan 88 (6-2, 2-0), Wheaton 81 (4-2, 1-1)
  • @ North Park 67 (5-1, 2-0), Millikin 61 (3-3, 0-2)
  • Augustana 66 (5-1, 1-0), @ Elmhurst 63 (3-4, 1-1)
  • UW-Platteville 78, @ Carroll 73 (1-6, 0-1)
  • MBK: @ Augustana 79 (5-1, 1-0), NCC 72 (3-3, 1-1)
Final Thoughts
I'm not going to lie: I didn't have high expectations coming into this one. Carthage is a good program, and the way the Cardinals had been playing I wasn't feeling particularly great about this one. But North Central kept it close the whole way and I felt okay in the halftime intermission. But this overtime thriller ended in fun fashion with a nice little mass celebration at midcourt after all was said and done.
After the handshake line, they met at midcourt again, and before I got into my end of game spiel, I let them celebrate, because they deserved it. They've played quite a few teams pretty well, but didn't play particularly well in their last two. This was a nice win, not only because they finally got into the win column, but also because of this fun little nugget.
I retweeted this again after the game with the note that it was still true and still making me smile. Tarble Arena in Kenosha has been a house of horrors for the Cardinals, who haven't won there since 2006, so to return the favor to a senior class of Carthage's by keeping them winless in Naperville is a fun little dish of revenge.

We close out the December portion of conference play on Saturday as Illinois Wesleyan comes to town. This has turned into a great rivalry in the last few years, and hopefully the Cardinals can carry the momentum from last night into that game.
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