Game Notes: (MBK) Augustana College @ North Central College (12/7/24)

Final Score
NCC 76, Augustana 69

Game Summary
After a tough loss to open CCIW play on Wednesday, the Cardinals (6-2, 1-1) opened with a pair of layups on their first two possessions to go up 4-0. Then the seesaw came out as the Vikings (5-2, 1-1) scored the next five. Neither team could gain a large edge as the game stayed within one possession for the rest of the half, the Vikings scoring with eight ticks left to take a 36-35 halftime edge. Augie pushed their lead to five early in the second half before the Cardinals stormed back, hitting back to back threes to get the seesaw going once again. NCC would lead by as many as four, but the seesaw kept going. After 14 ties, the Cardinals took the 30th lead change of the game on a pair of free throws with just over a minute to go, then hit six more while shutting out the Vikings the rest of the way to seal the home victory.

Key Players

• Ethan Helwig (NCC): 6-11 FG (3-7 3PT), 8-8 FT; 23 pts, 2 reb, 3 ast. Ethan's had some rough games to start the year, but in this one got the ship righted. It was a big boost to get his scoring average back into double figures, he hit some big shots, but it was his work at the free throw line late that helped seal the deal. Helwig hit six in a row in the final minute-plus, including the ones that gave the Cardinals the lead for good.
• Tre Davis (NCC): 3-6 FG (1-2 3PT), 2-2 FT; 9 pts, 1 reb, 2 stl. While I could have gone with the only other double figure scorer in Tyler Swierczek (16 pts), I'll go with the guy who made arguably the play of the game. After Augie tied the game at 53, they shut NCC's offense down for 29 seconds before knocking the ball out of bounds and forcing an inbound with just one second on the shot clock. In past years, the Cardinals would have drawn up a lob play inside; instead Drew Gaston found Davis for a fallaway jumper at the buzzer that, at least for the moment, gave the Cardinals some momentum. Davis followed that up a few minutes later with his lone three that again gave the Cardinals the lead. Not a statistically driven game for Davis, but he hit big shots when his team needed him, and his two steals helped on the other end as well.
• Tyler Knuth (AUG): 6-15 FG (4-9 3PT), 6-6 FT; 22 pts, 1 reb. Knuth's main contribution came from his shooting, as he hit a number of big threes for the Vikings while also taking advantage of his trips to the free throw line. It just wasn't quite enough on this night.

Key Stats

• NCC: 9-23 3PT (39.1%). This is a very good shooting night on its face, but it came in the wake of a rough shooting night on Wednesday where the Cardinals hit just eight of 30 treys (26.7%) in a loss to Millikin. On this night, they didn't settle for threes. They largely came in the flow of the offense, and most importantly: they hit them when they needed to. It's a good bounceback effort.
• AUG: Outscored NCC in the paint 28-16. The Vikings had the size advantage in this one, and they used it. Guys were able to make their way to the basket, and then even in instances where they may not have hit, they got to the free throw line where they also had a good night (11-14, 78.6%). It just wasn't quite enough in this one.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• @ NPU 73 (5-3, 2-0), MIL 64 (4-4, 1-1)
• IWU 72 (7-1, 1-1), @ CRL 66 (2-6, 0-2)
• @ ELM 73 (4-4, 1-1), WHE 67 (3-7, 0-1)
• CAR 95 (6-2, 1-0), Knox 69

Final Thoughts

After missing the tough loss on Wednesday, it was good to get back to Merner on Saturday. We saw a tough, physical game a lot like many other North Central-Augustana games of the past. They largely let both teams play in this one (from a biased perspective, I thought to NCC's detriment at times in the second half). But when teams did get to the line, they took advantage; the Cardinals were near perfect (23-24, 95.8%, probably could/should have been my key stat for NCC). It got them back in the win column and to .500 in CCIW play.

It's hard at this point to say how good the CCIW on the whole is this season, but we'll find out more on Saturday when the Cardinals welcome Carroll to Gregory Arena for the first time since their CCIW Tournament meeting in February.