Game Notes: (WBK): Elmhurst University @ North Central College (1/24/22)

Final Score
NCC 72, Elmhurst 50

Game Summary
This one was never in doubt, as despite the Blue Jays (2-15, 0-9) taking a 3-2 lead a minute and a half into the contest, that was all they'd get in the opening ten minutes as the Cardinals (7-10, 4-4) cruised out to a 19-3 lead by the end of the quarter. The run finished out at 19-0 before the Blue Jays finally got the lid off the basket. The lead grew to 20 by the halfway point of the second, and the Cardinals took a 22 point advantage into the locker room. North Central pushed the lead as high as 26 in the third, and while the Blue Jays made a mini push right at the end of the third into the fourth, but got no closer than 18 while the Cardinals got the lead as high as 29 before lead assistant Chrissi Ekhomu called off the dogs in the final minutes.

Key Players

• Elle Sutter (NCC): 9-16 FG (2-6 3PT), 1-3 FT; 21 pts, 4 reb (2 off), 2 ast, 5 stl. Elle is quickly turning into a piece the Cardinals can build around for the future. I'd completely forgotten about the collection of steals, but she wreaked havoc on a mostly young Elmhurst backcourt and got quite a few breakaway layups. With her size as well, she's rounding into a strong all-around player. I don't think she's All-CCIW quality... at least not yet, but she's trending in the right direction.
• IxChel Leeuwenburgh (NCC): 6-6 FG, 3-4 FT; 15 pts, 9 reb (5 off), 1 ast, 1 stl. I haven't really been able to hype up one of my favorite Cardinals of late, but she showed up in this one. She had plenty of open looks for layups, and did a good job at the line as well. But the team's best rebounder showed up in this one despite only having three boards at halftime (which I thought seemed low because she seemed to keep ending up with loose balls). When she stays out of foul trouble... she's a problem on the boards, and showed she can't be ignored on offense either.
• Marissa Urso (ELM): 5-8 FG (1-2 3PT), 2-2 FT; 13 pts, 2 reb (1 off), 2 ast, 1 stl. Not a lot of positives to write home about for this one for the Blue Jays, so we'll go with the veteran guard who put up decent numbers in an otherwise forgettable night for the visitors.

Key Stats

• NCC: Outrebounded Elmhurst 44-31. I feel like the Jays had a slight size advantage in this one, but it sure didn't seem like it. That's an impressive rebounding margin for the Cardinals, who collected 18 offensive rebounds leading to 20 second chance points. Elmhurst, by comparison, had seven for six points.
• ELM: 21 turnovers. I feel like 20 is kind of the magic number for turnovers in women's basketball. It's not necessarily a causal link or anything, but anecodotally seems like if you hit that mark in turnovers you're going to have a bad time. And sure enough, the Blue Jays did, with their 21 giveaways leading to 28 Cardinal points. The Jays, for comparison, had 12 off 14 Cardinal turnovers. These two stats more or less tell the story.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• IWU 68 (11-7, 8-1), @ NPU 49 (11-5, 4-4)
• AUG 67 (8-10, 2-7), @ CRL 58 (12-4, 4-4)

Final Thoughts
Looking at records in advance, I expected a win. I did not expect the Jays to go almost ten minutes between baskets in the early going while the Cardinals built an insurmountable lead, but that's what ended up happening. It was more or less cruise control from there on out for a Cardinal team down its head coach, as Maggie McCloskey-Bax missed her second straight game due to COVID. Chrissi Ekhomu is 2-0 as the acting head coach, and from what I've heard McCloskey-Bax is doing okay.

I'm skipping the "halfway through conference play" post this year because of all the postponements we've had that have thrown the schedules off, but North Central has knocked out half of its schedule with two against Carroll still to go and a sweep of Carthage in the books. At this stage, we have a couple of tiers. Millikin and Illinois Wesleyan are the class of the conference at 8-1 apiece (with the Titans holding the tiebreaker so far). At the bottom end, you have this Blue Jay team as well as a struggling Augie team (who did get a big win at Carroll on Monday, in fairness)... and then North Central clustered in a group with the rest of the conference. You've got five teams more or less fighting for those last four spots, and the Cardinals are right in the thick of it. The worst loss was by 15 at the Shirk Center in a game the Cardinals led at halftime, as well as 13 point loss at Wheaton, but the other two losses are quality: by six at Millikin and the overtime heartbreaker at home against North Park last week I didn't get to write a recap about. The aforementioned Carthage sweep, plus taking care of business against the bottom of the league has the Cardinals in good position with eight to go.

The upcoming schedule is pretty favorable as they'll get a chance to face those teams in the cluster a second time (or both times, in the case of the Pios) and get the two leaders at home. First up on Wednesday is a rematch with an Augustana team the Cardinals dispatched fairly easily last week.