Game Notes (MBK): North Park University @ North Central College (1/23/21)

Final Score

NCC 69, NPU 49

Game Summary

Playing for the first time in almost a full calendar year, the Cardinals (1-0) got off to a slow start, falling behind 7-2 early as they struggled to shoot. But then the Vikings (0-1) went cold as well, going nearly eight minutes without a basket as the Cardinals used a 10-0 run to take the lead. North Park hung around though as the Cardinals got a little sloppy with the ball and the game turned into a back and forth affair. The Vikings hit a shot on the last possession of the half, tying the game at 27 going into the locker room. But the master of halftime, Todd Raridon, worked his magic again, as the Cardinals opened the second half on a 17-3 run to take dominant control of the game, and the Vikings would not threaten the rest of the way.

Key Players

• Blaise Meredith (NCC): 9-17 FG (6-12 3PT), 1-3 FT; 25 pts, 7 reb, 6 ast, 1 blk, 1 stl. With the departure of Connor Raridon and Matt Cappelletti this offseason, this has become Blaise Meredith's team, and he put the team on his back today. Most of his damage came from behind the arc, an area of his game he's really improved on over the last couple of years, and he remained a force on the defensive end as well as on the glass. He fought through some physical defense today and wanted more calls than he got, and that's really my only gripe is making sure his head stays in the game, but for the most part he was, and it showed today.
• Brian Johnson (NCC): 5-10 FG (1-3 3PT), 0-2 FT; 11 pts, 9 reb (5 off), 3 ast, 1 stl. The aforementioned departures also leave a gap in the forward position that needed to be filled today, especially with Will Clausel out due to injury, and the sophomore stepped up big time in this one. He opened the season's scoring for the Cardinals with a putback layup early, showed some range from deep, but also did a great job moving without the ball for some layups while also playing strong on the boards. If he can continue to put these numbers up as the season goes on, look out.
• Adam Sundh (NPU): 6-8 FG (0-2 3PT); 12 pts, 4 reb (1 off), 1 ast, 3 stl. In my prep for this game, I reached out to the play by play guy for North Park athletics, Greg Sager. In addition to coaching me on the nuance of Swedish surname pronunciation, he mentioned that he figured Sundh would get some run in this game, and not only did he, but he was probably the Vikings' best guy on the floor. He scored eight straight North Park points in the first half to keep the game competitive, and did it largely by wreaking havoc on the defensive end and cashing those points in on the other end. Tom Slyder has a good one here.

Key Stats

• NCC: 17 second chance points. There are some aspects of this game, looking at the box score, where things were even or even favoring the Vikings, but this number jumped out at me. The Cardinals had 14 offensive rebounds in this game to lead to those 17 points, while the Vikings managed just eight on second opportunities. On a night where both teams had a little rust, taking advantage of these chances was key, and the Cardinals capitalized.
• NPU: 3-19 3PT (15.8%). On the whole this number looks bad, but let's break it down by halves. The Vikings hit their first three attempt of the game to open the scoring, then went cold, but hit a couple threes later in the half, finishing 3-9 in the first 20 minutes. That of course means an 0-10 stretch in the second half. As a point of reference, the Vikings shot about 33 percent from deep last season, and much of last year's roster is back, so between first game jitters and regression to the mean, I don't think we can read too much into this, especially since North Central is a good defensive team.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• IWU 74 (1-0), @ CRL 59 (0-1)
• @ WHE 88 (1-0), AUG 67 (0-1)
• @ CAR 83 (1-0), MIL 57 (0-1)
• BYE: ELM (0-0)
• WBK: @ NPU 59 (1-0), NCC 47 (0-1)

Final Thoughts

Photo by Mark Black

Today was a long time coming. It was the first contest for the Cardinals since the legendary Oshkosh game, and a contest that I think a lot of us weren't sure was going to happen. I'm grateful to the NCAA, the CCIW, and North Central for taking steps to make sure that this contest could be put on safely. And on top of that, I'm glad that the North Central athletic department, even with no fans, still wanted the gameday atmosphere to be as close to normal as possible, and thus invited me back for my tenth year behind the microphone, even though this season is nowhere near what I pictured it looking like.

As for this game, it wasn't pretty at times. There was a lot of rust, which was something to be expected. Fortunately that rust extended both ways, and while the Vikings made a game of it in the first half, good job by the Cardinals to take care of business in the second half and come away with the victory.

With the shortened schedule this season, the Cardinals will go forward by finishing the home and home with North Park by paying a visit to the north side of Chicago on Monday night, while the women's team, who played in the crackerbox this afternoon, will host North Park Monday night, and I'll be back at it for them as well. For the men, it's a good start and a good sign that this team is still pretty good. Hopefully they'll take care of business on the road, but the rest of the schedule is no cakewalk. With luck, today was a good building block for the rest of the campaign.