Game Notes: (MBK) Aurora University @ North Central College (11/27/21)

Final Score
NCC 76, Aurora 44

Game Summary
This one didn't get off to a great start as the Spartans (1-4) scored the game's first four points before the Cardinals (3-1) got things figured out and overcame one last deficit at 6-4, embarking on a 14-2 run that spanned about seven minutes and gave North Central total control. Aurora never got closer than within eight the rest of the way as the Cardinals built a 33-15 halftime lead, then all but it out of reach with eight straight to open the second half. The margin was at least 20 from that point on, and was in the 30's for a good chunk of the half, allowing Todd Raridon to empty his bench for the final couple minutes.

Key Players

• Matt Helwig (NCC): 8-14 FG (3-6 3PT), 3-4 FT; 22 pts, 5 reb, 1 ast, 2 stl. Matt has become the go-to offensive guy for the Cardinals in the early going of the campaign; after a monster performance in the Battle of Chicago-Maple Avenue earlier in the week, he scored the first dozen points of the game for the Cardinals to help set the tone while the rest of the squad got going.
• Terrance Moncrief (NCC): 4-7 FG (2-4 3PT); 10 pts, 1 reb, 1 stl. There weren't a ton of other outstanding Cardinals looking at the box score, but I was pretty impressed with what Moncrief brought to the table in 22 minutes of action. He was an early sub for the Cardinals and hit a couple threes as part of that 14-2 run that gave the Cardinals control for the evening. He's got good burst and a pretty good shot; I think he'll be a good piece going forward for this team, and as a freshman, he's got time to blossom.
• Shamar Pumphrey (AUR): 3-16 FG (1-5 3PT); 7 pts, 2 reb, 1 ast, 2 stl. There were no good picks for Aurora, so we'll go with a guy that felt like a microcosm of their game tonight. When you tie for your team's lead in scoring with seven points... you're not having a good night.

Key Stats

• NCC: 10-24 3PT (41.7%). Coming into this one, the Cardinals were shooting a putrid 21.7% from three point range, so a confidence booster was needed, and tonight provided one. Getting the early spark from Matt Helwig and Terrance Moncrief was good as other guys got into the action as the game went on. The ten made threes matched the total from the first three games and pumped the Cardinals' numbers for the season up a full seven percentage points to a still rough 28.6 percent. We'll get there.
• AUR: 22 points off 20 NCC turnovers. I don't know if Aurora features a press as part of its main defensive strategy or it's something they saw that had given the Cardinals some fits in the early going, but it did help to some extent. Aurora only managed eight points off turnovers in the first half before picking it up a bit in the second (though a lot of that stemmed from a generally awful first half offensively).

Final Thoughts
There's not much to take from this game, and I won't sugarcoat it: this Spartan team is not very good. You have to beat the teams you're supposed to, and in that regard the Cardinals took care of business. But I'm not lauding this as some sort of masterpiece, because the Cardinals do have to clean some things up. I was a little surprised to see North Central finished with a 40-32 rebounding edge, because the Spartans had an edge in the first half. This is something the Cardinals will need to clean up, because CCIW play is fast approaching. North Central has a week now to prepare for the Carthage Firebirds to come invade Gregory Arena to open conference play.

Game Notes: (MBK) Aurora University @ North Central College (12/12/18)

Final Score
NCC 83, Aurora 73

Game Summary
Things did not start great in this one as the Spartans (2-4) opened the game on an absurd 11-0 run. The Cardinals (7-1) finally broke the ice about four minutes in, but the Spartans kept up their attack and that 11 point advantage. But bit by bit, the Cardinals started eating into that deficit, eventually using a 15-3 run to take the lead. They never relinquished it from that point on, pulling ahead by as many as seven before settling into intermission with a 38-33 advantage, and about two and a half minutes into the second half pushing it to double digits on a Blaise Meredith steal and breakaway dunk. The Spartans would get no closer than seven the rest of the way, leading by as many as 17 before garbage time when both teams largely emptied their benches.

Key Players

• Connor Raridon (NCC): 6-11 FG (0-1 3PT), 11-12 FT; 23 pts, 9 reb (3 off), 4 ast, 2 stl. Connor will probably have to wait until Saturday to join the 1,000 point club, as he came eight points short tonight, but was pretty good in this one. He more so did little things in the first half, notching six of his points and eight rebounds then before getting to the rack and the line in the second half.
• Blaise Meredith (NCC): 5-10 FG (2-3 3PT), 8-8 FT; 20 pts, 5 reb (2 off), 1 ast, 3 stl. Blaise was the dominant force in the first half for the Cardinals, especially during the comeback. He scored 11 of his 20 in the first half and was phenomenal at the line, and continued his strong game in the second half with the aforementioned breakaway dunk. He also had a beautiful tip-in off an inbounds pass in this one.
• Matt Cappelletti (NCC): 4-11 FG (1-4 3PT), 2-2 FT; 11 pts, 13 reb (7 off), 3 ast. Ho hum, another double-double. Cap's outside shot continues to have its issues, though the fact that he has confidence to still take them is encouraging. Also encouraging is that he's still attacking the basket and getting his points elsewhere. In a game where North Central, amazingly enough, had a size advantage, he made the most of it tonight.

Key Stats

• NCC: 24-26 FT (92.3%). This was an outstanding showing at the line that included a pair of technical free throws (see more on that below), but my dad via text compared it to a pitcher throwing a perfect game. The Cardinals hit their first 22 shots from the line before Aiden Chang "blew [it] with two outs in the (sic) 8th." Per North Park's Gregory Sager, the D-III record is held by Albany, who went 28-28 from the line in a game against Potsdam State back in 1994.
• AUR: 27-54 FG, 7-14 3PT (50.0%). Four nights after getting lit up by North Park, there are still some concerns on defense for this North Central team. The Spartans shot well, especially early on to build that lead before seemingly coming back down to earth as the game went on. I say seemingly because they topped 50 percent in the second half. This wasn't just hitting threes, they also got to the basket too easily in many cases. It's a good showing for Aurora against what's supposed to be a good defensive team, though to be fair the Cardinals did make a number of nice defensive stops in this one.

Final Thoughts

I hate to address officiating, especially after a win, but I don't think either coach was particularly pleased after this one. Both Todd Raridon and Aurora's Lance Robinson were in officials' ears all night, pleading for calls, which in and of itself isn't unusual, but both guys had complaints, and I'd say both were valid. Robinson though drew a technical foul in the second half following a loose ball situation where the Cardinals recovered and called timeout. Robinson, from the far end of the floor, didn't think they had possession, and dropped an F-bomb in his complaint to the official, earning himself the T, which he questioned as it was called even though dropping an F-bomb to an official will earn you the tech most of the time.

Game-wise, it was good to see North Central not lose composure after falling behind by so much so early, working their way back in with a balanced attack and making enough stops even though the scoring was a little high for probably a lot of people's tastes. But they followed up a tough loss with a nice home win to cap off a 3-1 homestand, which you take every time.

It gets tough this weekend though as the Cardinals head up to Wheaton to take on the Thunder. Wheaton is a little hard to figure out; they've lost some games they shouldn't have, then turn around and have Aston Francis do Aston Francis things like tonight when he dropped a career-high 54 in a win over UW-Platteville. North Central, needless to say, will need to keep him in check if they want to continue the win streak they have over the Thunder, especially in a tough King Arena.

Game Notes: Aurora University @ North Central College (11/25/16)

Final Score
NCC 88, Aurora 78

Game Summary
This was a pretty tough game the whole way as the Cardinals (3-0) got out to an early lead, but a 7-0 Spartans (2-2) run gave Aurora the lead. The Cardinals battled back with a 10-0 run of their own to regain control and would lead by as many as 16 before ultimately taking a 47-37 lead into the break. The Spartans came out firing in the second half, cutting the lead down to three points early, but North Central answered with key baskets. The Spartans didn't give up, narrowing the lead to five with a little over seven minutes left, but the Cardinals held onto the ball for a minute and a half before getting a couple free throws, picked up a steal, and got a three to reopen the lead to 10. Aurora would get no closer than eight the rest of the way as the Cardinals picked up their third straight win and avenged last year's loss.

Key Stats

• Connor Raridon (NCC): 8-14 FG (1-3 3PT), 6-9 FT; 24 pts, 3 reb (2 off), 9 ast, 1 blk, 2 stl. Todd Raridon has been riding his youngest son the last couple games, as Connor never left the floor on Friday. But he was phenomenal on offense, doing a lot of driving and fading away, but he also did a great job down low and distributing the ball. He looked possibly a little winded late in the game when he was missing free throws, but he played well again.
• Aiden Chang (NCC): 6-10 FG (3-5 3PT), 4-4 FT; 19 pts, 1 reb, 3 ast, 2 blk. Aiden had arguably the best game of his career on Friday. His 19 points are a career high, and he came up with a few huge buckets. His old fashioned three point play capped North Central's 10-0 run in the first half, and he followed that up on the next possession with a four point play. He's really developing into a great player.
• Aurora: 13-27 3PT (48.1%). As I was getting ready at Merner on Friday and looking over Aurora's stats, one thing caught my eye: this team can shoot. They were at 39-93 coming into this contest, good for a 41.9 percent clip. They eclipsed that in this game, as those threes are by and large what kept them in the game. Pat Kramp hit five of his six threes, and Ty Carlson added four on six attempts.

Final Thoughts
I definitely thought North Central was the better team in this one, and the argument was made that it shouldn't have been this close. The Cardinals won the rebounding battle 43-23 and shot 54.2 percent from the floor. But they let Aurora stay close thanks to their hot shooting, which isn't the greatest of signs, but it's still early in the season.

I was a little embarrassed by the perceived "home court advantage" in this one, as many Aurora faithful made the short trek to Naperville for this contest. This is a good thing for the sport, but they were very loud... significantly louder than the North Central faithful in attendance. Granted, this was a Black Friday game, but I was not encouraged by this. Hopefully conference play will be better.

Maybe the best part of this contest came right at the end. Multiple players dove for a loose ball along Aurora's bench and took out head coach Lance Robinson as well as pretty much completely destroying his chair. I didn't get a chance to take a picture of it, but one of the legs was completely bent out of shape. All parties involved were all right, which is the most important thing.

This was the second game of a five game home stand for the Cardinals. They return to action on Tuesday as they welcome in Wisconsin-Platteville for a 7:00 tip.

Game Notes: Aurora University @ North Central College (11/25/14)

Final Score
NCC 67, Aurora 63

Game Summary
This was a chippy game from the outset, as both defenses stepped up from the tip. The Spartans (2-2) had control for the first four minutes until the Cardinals (3-0) started to heat up. Aurora maintained its lead for a while then started swapping leads a couple times. Foul trouble started to catch up to them though and Cardinal threes started to fall. NCC built its lead until they were up 44-25 at the break. Momentum completely turned around in the second half; while the Cardinals were able to maintain their 19 point lead for a while, the Spartans went on a 15-0 run to narrow the gap to four with about two minutes left.

Key Stats

• Jayme Moten (NCC): 7-11 FG (5-8 3PT), 1-1 FT; 20 pts, 3 reb, 3 ast, 1 stl. Jamie caught fire in the first half, going 4-6 from beyond the arc and 5-7 overall. His two-pointer was an absolutely gorgeous layup where he subtly slowed down to draw contact and had the strength to bank it home. It was incredible.
• Charles Rosenberg (NCC): 5-13 FG (0-2 3PT), 1-2 FT; 11 pts, 12 reb (1 off), 6 ast, 2 stl. Rosenberg managed one point on a free throw in the first half before trying to take over in the second half. In the early stages, he did before the collapse started happening.
• Brandon Smith (AUR): 11-19 FG (5-9 3PT), 3-4 FT; 30 pts, 2 reb (1 off), 1 ast. Smith pretty much singlehandedly keyed the Aurora comeback in the second half. I had a couple fans behind me asking what he finished with on my way out, that's how good he was. He almost keyed a comeback win, but the Cardinals held on.

Final Thoughts
This was a very chippy game. I know I said that in the summary, but it needs mentioning twice. There was a lot of physical play, and some ticky tack stuff was called. The Cardinals also got away with a couple flops in the first half. It got to the point that Aurora coach James Lancaster pulled a Grey Giovanine and took off his jacket angrily during a time out. The tables turned a bit in the second. Aurora got away with a foul that shouldn't have been called, but it evened thigs out a bit.

NCC now hits the road for eight straight to close out the non-conference slate. The women have a couple more home games before CCIW play yet, starting on Saturday.

Game Notes: Aurora University @ North Central College (12/30/13)

Final Score
NCC 108, Aurora 80

Game Summary
This game felt closer than it should have been in the early going. The Cardinals (7-4) needed a couple minutes to get going, but led 11-3 just over four minutes in and 16-5 about five and a half minutes in. The lead stayed around that range for several minutes but the Spartans (4-7) never wavered, narrowing the gap to two points when the halftime buzzer sounded. Order was quickly restored in the second half though as the Cardinals went on a 15-2 run to open up a 60-45 edge two and a half minutes into the frame. Still, the Spartans didn't go away, keeping within striking distance and even got within six at 77-71 with less than 10 mintues to go. From there, the Cardinals decided they'd had enough shenanigans and pulled away for a comfortable win.

Key Stats

• Miranda Grizaffi (NCC): 5-12 FG (5-12 3PT), 2-2 FT; 17 pts, 3 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl. I could have gone in a few directions for top NCC player yesterday. I decided on Miranda based on this being kind of her breakout game. She shot well last night and led her team in scoring. She was primarily aided by Larynn Shumaker (16 points on 5-8 shooting plus 6-6 on freebies) and Lauren Hernandez (12 points on 4-11 shooting).
• Anna Roszkowski (AUR): 9-17 FG, 10-14 FT; 28 pts, 20 reb (10 ofr), 2 ast, 1 blk. After the game when the Sports Information guys and a local reporter were looking at the stat sheet, somebody mentioned that this looked like a Karl Malone line. Holy crap. Roszkowski was lethal in the first half, when she had a 23-12. She was a big part of a minute stretch where Aurora maintained possession based on something like 6 or 7 straight offensive rebounds that might have killed me if it had netted more than her one point on a free throw.
• Shay Jenkins (AUR): 10-24 FG (0-1 3PT), 5-8 FT; 25 pts, 10 reb, 7 ast, 3 stl. Like Roszkowski was in the first half, Jenkins was the key for the Spartans after halftime in keeping the game close. She kept finding ways into the lane to drop home floater after floater. Regarding the rebound numbers: she's 5'4". Let that sink in. In the second half, she shot 8-16 and hit all four of her free throws.

North Central System Watch

• NCC 3PT: 17-62 (27.4%). Percentage-wise, this is lower than you'd like. But when you end up making 17 three's in a game, you can live with it a little more. The shooting seemed more crisp than it did on Saturday, which helped. I said Saturday that this team lives and dies by the three, and the numbers back it up. In the first half, the Cardinals shot 7-33 from deep (21.7%). In the second, they shot 10-29 (34.5%). If they can sustain that shooting percentage closer to 30 percent, and even a few points higher, this team will be very tough to beat.
• Aurora Turnovers: 39. That also helps matters. There weren't a lot of whistles for traveling, and Aurora didn't throw many passes out of bounds. It showed; 27 of those turnovers came off Cardinal steals. 13 players recorded at least one theft, led by Maryssa Cladis' five. Bobbi Johns and Marion Boeck each added four.

Final Thoughts
I told a number of people in the first half that there was no way we should have let Aurora hang around the way they were. Fortunately the Cardinals caught fire and put the game out of reach at the end. They close out non-conference play with the same mark they had last year at 7-4, with no real surprises. The four teams they've lost to are all good teams, especially Hope. There is an interesting stat that we've seen through 11 games. Look at NCC's schedule and results so far. They are 7-0 when scoring at least 100 points and 0-4 when they fail to hit the century mark. The Cardinals only hit that mark six times last year, so clearly in Year Two of the new system, the offense has figured out a lot of the kinks. They've actually scored just over 100 points per game this season, yet still have a total point differential of -1 on the season.

Millikin and North Park play today to hit the 11-game mark, while Wheaton plays its 10th of the year (they have a date against IIT in late January for some reason). Of all the CCIW squads, only Augustana has a losing record. Wheaton sits at 8-1 coming into today, and preseason favorite Carthage is 9-2. I was surprised to see Illinois Wesleyan is only 6-5, but they've played a ton of tough competition, with four of their five losses coming to teams in or just outside the last Top 25 poll. As usual, the CCIW is going to be a gauntlet. The Cardinals snuck into the tournament last year with a 6-8 mark in conference. I don't think it's out of the question to see the Cardinals hit .500 in conference play this year and make the tournament again, but teams will be gunning for them this year.

Talking to Michelle Roof before the game yesterday, she was thrilled that I had been back after missing a couple games and mentioned that the energy and the aura of the team just seems different at home when I'm there. I'm sure a lot of it is being in a familiar environment without having to travel and knowing the rims and such. I told her that I'm an intangible, but I want to try and give them as much of a home court advantage as I can, and if my work energizes this team, I'm happy to help. But they deserve the credit. I'm just a guy who happens to like yelling "THREEEEEEEEEE!" a lot.

CCIW play begins Saturday, and the Cardinals open at home against North Park. This is a big one for no other reason than how last year's tilt at Merner ended. Hopefully these girls can get some revenge for last year and start CCIW play on the right foot.