Thursday, January 11, 2018

Game Notes: (WBK) Millikin University @ North Central College (1/10/18)

Final Score
NCC 91, Millikin 78

Game Summary
This was a little nerve wracking at the very beginning as the Big Blue (5-10, 0-6) jumped out to a 5-0 lead, but the Cardinals (4-10, 2-3) had an answer with a 12-2 run to grab the lead. It was fairly back and forth from there, with the Cardinals leading 20-18 after one. North Central led for a chunk of the second quarter but couldn't pull away, and the Big Blue took control in the latter part of the frame, leading by as many as five before taking a 39-37 lead into the locker room. Millikin opened the second quarter strong with an 8-2 run to push their lead to eight and got it as high as nine with 4:14 left in the stanza. But the Cardinals answered with an 11-0 run to get back into the contest, though they would trail 56-55 after three due to a foul at the buzzer. The teams traded the lead a time or two early in the frame, with Millikin grabbing its final lead with 6:36 to play before a 13-2 Cardinal run effectively sealed the deal. The Big Blue padded the final score with a ton of fouls in the final two and a half minutes but were unable to mount a comeback.

Key Stats
  • Mayson Whipple (NCC): 11-19 FG (5-11 3PT), 9-10 FT; 36 pts, 3 reb, 6 ast, 3 stl. Mayson's had some decent games this year after coming back from that knee injury, but this was far and away her best. She was able to get to the basket with ease and added an excellent stepback game from beyond the arc. She ended up padding her final totals thanks to Millikin going foul happy late en route to a tie for the third-highest scoring game in program history.
  • Michaela Reedy (NCC): 6-6 FG (5-5 3PT), 2-2 FT; 19 pts, 7 reb (1 off), 1 ast, 1 stl. Fun background story in this one: apparently Michaela's boyfriend bet her ice cream depending on her scoring output last night; ten points and it was his treat. Needless to say, he's paying up after one of the best outputs I've ever seen. She hit three in the early going of this one and put me on record watch, but she only played 20 minutes in this one and didn't get a ton of opportunities, but she made the most of them.
  • Yanni Sadler (MIL): 9-14 FG (0-3 3PT), 5-7 FT; 23 pts, 4 reb (1 off), 4 ast, 3 stl. Sadler did a good job getting to the rim and running Millikin's offense last night, while also wreaking some defensive havoc with the three steals. She couldn't really stop Whipple on the other end, but all in all had a good game.
North Central "System" Watch
  • Millikin Turnovers: 23. North Central's full court pressure did its job in this one as they harassed Millikin into a fair number of turnovers. This total includes a shot clock violation early where Millikin failed to get a shot off when inbounding with three seconds to go, an inexcusable ten second count in the backcourt, and a five second inbounding call. Of the remaining 20, ten came on steals, with Mayson Whipple and Jessica Dahle each posting three.
  • NCC 3PT: 14-33 (42.4%). After an abysmal shooting performance four days ago up at Carroll, the Cardinals absolutely caught fire in this one. Michaela Reedy was a big part of this, but you had Whipple's excellent game combined with pretty good performances from other players as well. You're going to have games like this here and there, and if they can keep it up, they can get back into a competitive race.
  • NCC FT: 19-27 (70.4%). I think it's very important to note here that these numbers are somewhat skewed. The Cardinals were around their season average through three quarters with a 4-7 night, a 57.1 percent clip. But with Millikin fouling a ton in the final couple minutes, in particular fouling players on the Cardinals who are good free throw shooters, brought this number up significantly. The Cardinals' season clip improves greatly as they're almost up to 60 percent for the year, but they need to keep this up.
CCIW Scoreboard Watch
Final Thoughts
I talked with Michelle Roof after the game, who lamented the lost opportunity this past Saturday up in Waukesha (the Cliff Notes: NCC fell behind by a bunch early but fought back, held Carroll to three second half field goals but missed their last 11 field goals and lost by eight). She said they needed this one, which they absolutely did, and while it wasn't necessarily pretty at times, they got the job done. Mayson Whipple looked like her old self and Michaela Reedy got free ice cream, as the Cardinals took care of business. They've lost both of their road conference dates but are 2-1 against CCIW opponents in Gregory Arena.

The win puts them in a four way tie for fifth place, just one game back of North Park for the fourth and final CCIW Tournament spot. I feel like this team is starting to figure things out and they're going to be a tough opponent the rest of the way, but it's not easy coming up. The Cardinals welcome in Wheaton on Saturday, a team that's won 16 straight against the Cardinals. I keep saying it every year, but hopefully this time things will be different.

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