Game Notes: (MBK) Elmhurst College @ North Central College

Final Score
NCC 82, Elmhurst 70

Game Summary
This one was nearly a disaster as the Cardinals (12-3, 4-2) scored the opening basket, but followed that up by allowing an 11-2 Blue Jay (9-5, 4-1) run. Elmhurst remained in firm control, pushing the lead to 22-9 about eight minutes in and forcing a North Central timeout. The Cardinals slowly chipped back away with a 15-4 run of their own to pull back within two, but a five second call on Connor Raridon flipped the momentum back Elmhurst's way. The Blue Jays seemed poised to take a ten point lead into the locker room, but Jake Rhode drained a 40 footer at the halftime buzzer to make it 43-30. After presumably getting the fear of God put into them at halftime, the Cardinals came out much better to start the second half, opening the stanza on a 7-0 run and finding a way to tie the game at 45 about six minutes in. The Blue Jays scored the next five, but that was their last real push of control as the Cardinals followed that with a 15-1 run highlighted by back to back threes to make it a 58-51 game and force an Elmhurst timeout before the Cardinals capped the run with one more bucket. The Blue Jays got no closer than five the rest of the way, with North Central pushing the lead as high as 14.

Key Players

• Connor Raridon (NCC): 5-11 FG (1-3 3PT), 6-7 FT; 17 pts, 4 reb, 9 ast. Connor had a decent shooting night, getting a somewhat rare three while also draining his usual array of fallaways and midrange jumpers. But he also found the open guy numerous times; his nine assists did not crack the top five for a single game, but he is the single game top five list.
• Tommy Koth (NCC): 5-9 FG (2-4 3PT), 2-3 FT; 14 pts, 3 reb, 1 ast, 1 blk, 1 stl. I could have gone with Will Clausel (14 pts on 5-7/2-2/2-2 splits, 2 reb, 1 blk), but Tommy's line was more complete, and it was a much needed night for the senior getting what I believe was his first career start. Tommy's second triple was the one that gave the Cardinals a double digit lead with about three and a half to play. All in all, an excellent night.
• Jake Rhode (ELM): 10-20 FG (5-10 3PT); 25 pts, 3 reb, 5 ast, 1 stl. Rhode is in the conversation as one of the best guards in the league, and he showed why in this one. He hit three triples early to help build Elmhurst's big lead (including one "oh crap" wide open one). 14 of his points came before the halftime buzzer, including that 40 foot heave, but he cooled off a bit in the second half, attacking the basket more. The comment I made at the table was that he used up all his good juju on the heave.

Key Stats

• NCC: 7-23 3PT (30.4%). The reason I chose this stat was because of the disparity between halves. North Central went 1-11 (9.1%) in the first half before getting red hot in the second half (6-12, 50.0%), and I feel like to a degree, that tells the tale.
• ELM: 8-21 3PT (38.1%). Same thing here. The Blue Jays hit 7-13 in the first half, for an absurd 53.9% clip, then got cold in the second half, going just 1-8 (12.5%). Again, maybe the juju got used up.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• AUG 109 (13-1, 5-0), @ NPU 64 (4-11, 2-4)
• @ WHE 79 (10-4, 3-2), CRL 61 (5-10, 1-5)
• MIL 69 (8-5, 2-3), @ CAR 59 (6-8, 1-4)
• Bye: IWU (9-5, 2-3)

Final Thoughts

I talked with a North Central insider fan after the game, and he called it one of the best comeback wins he'd ever seen. While the North Central women's comeback against UW-Eau Claire in the magical 2014-15 season is still tops for me, this one has to rank up there. Normally, a team that gets a ridiculous shot to close a half would have all the momentum going into the locker room and coming back out for the second half, the opposite was the case in this game. The Cardinals took one to the nose, and came back standing. The win keeps them in third place in the conference, but they're now just half a game out of second place with the tiebreaker now in place against the occupants. It's a big win to snap a two game losing streak, but the schedule doesn't get any easier going forward. The Cardinals have a date in Bloomington against Illinois Wesleyan coming up on Wednesday, and while the Titans struggled early in CCIW play, they'll be ready for an incoming Cardinal team.