Game Notes: Robert Morris University @ North Central College (12/30/17)

Final Score
NCC 117, Robert Morris 72

Game Summary
This one was close in the early going as the Eagles (5-10) were able to score on three of their first four possessions, but they struggled to contain the Cardinals (7-4), who matched them basket for basket, and took the lead for good about two and a half minutes in with a 9-0 run. The Eagles shot okay from deep to keep the game reasonably close, but the Cardinals got the lead to double digits about eight minutes in, and after having the lead hover between eight and ten, used a 10-0 run to take total control. North Central would lead by as many as 26 before a Marquel Murphy buzzer beater on the baseline made it 61-37 at the break. Alex Sorenson singlehandedly kept North Central firmly in front as he scored the first 19 Cardinal points of the second half, then sat down for a couple minutes while the lead eclipsed 30. He came back in for all of a minute before Todd Raridon called off the dogs for the second straight game.

Key Stats

• Alex Sorenson (NCC): 25-29 FG (1-2 3PT), 3-4 FT; 54 pts, 14 reb (5 ofF), 1 ast. I don't know what more needs to be said, other than bask in the glory of that stat line. Coming into yesterday, Sorenson's career high was 32 points, set against Benedictine last season. He had 31 at halftime on 15-18 shooting. An overwhelming majority of his workload came against a completely overmatched interior Robert Morris defense, but he was automatic from the baseline as well. It continued in the second half, as it took until Alex was in the 40's for the Eagles to start double teaming him, and he still scored on them. He was lifted after a pair of free throws put him at 50. I turned to North Central SID Clark Teuscher and asked if the coaches knew he was two points shy of Bill Warden's all time record. He told the bench, and they made sure Clark told the Robert Morris bench that Alex would return solely to get the record. He returned with 9:30 to go, and immediately tied the record on a baseline jumper. On the next possession, Mike Pollack missed a layup, but Alex was right there to tip it home, and he was lifted at the next dead ball to an ovation and the announcement of his breaking the scoring record. His 25 made field goals is also a school, breaking the previous mark of 19 also held by Warden.
• Connor Raridon (NCC): 5-9 FG (0-1 3PT); 10 pts, 8 reb (1 off), 12 ast, 1 blk. Connor joked on his way out of the locker room yesterday that he didn't score 54, but after his monster outing against Albion in the previous game, he was just as vital in this one. He helped North Central dominate the paint early, but then took on more of a facilitator role, grabbing plenty of rebounds and taking a huge chunk out of Adam Teising's lead in career assists (Connor is now 56 off the record). Even the last couple of years Connor has contributed beyond just being a go-to scorer, and the scary part continues to be that Connor still has two years of eligibility left, so he hasn't even peaked yet.
• NCC: 36 assists on 47 field goals. I could have gone a number of directions with this last one. North Central shot 62.7 percent from the floor and 44 percent from three, while outrebounding Robert Morris 59-22. Any one of these stats would paint the picture that the Cardinals totally dominated this one, but the assist number is mind-boggling. This shows that overall, North Central's ball movement and finding the open guy/force feeding Alex Sorenson in the post was clicking. Said 36 assists are a school record for a single game.

Final Thoughts

The aforementioned 59 rebounds by the Cardinals in this one were also a single game record, so a ton of old marks fell yesterday. You really need to watch the tape, because it tells a lot. Robert Morris took a ton of bad shots (33 of their 77 attempts were from beyond the arc), but beyond that, on a majority of their three attempts, no one crashed the boards, so there were three or four white jerseys all in the paint to collect the rebound. A few of them were even able to be corralled on a bounce because no Eagles were even close. Really, it was about as close to a perfect all around performance as you can find.

Today’s game was a bit of a blur. We broke the school for assists too so I was getting the ball in some great spots #GoCards https://t.co/f0gMKmIQiO

— Alex Sorenson (@AlexSCOREnson) December 31, 2017

As far as implications about this game go, it was great to get the win in a game that I thought would be much closer than it was, but as far as how it impacts the Cardinals' resume, it doesn't a ton. Robert Morris is an NAIA school, so by and large this game won't show up as a factor when regional rankings come into play. But it's a great way to close out the calendar year and extends the Cardinals' win streak to four with CCIW play resuming on Wednesday.

I've announced close to 100 women's basketball games at North Central, plus a few dozen men's games, and then factor in the dozens of high school games I announced back in my Aurora Christian days. Some day I'll do a list (probably when I work my 100th women's game), but of all of the games I've ever announced, I think this one had to immediately catapult into the top five. There's a few that involved buzzer beaters, and I've now announced the single game scoring record games for both the men's and women's teams. But this one was something special, and makes it two games in a row where history has been made.

We'll be hard pressed to make it three with Carthage coming to town on Wednesday. They're a good team near the top of the CCIW standings, though the last time these two teams met, this happened. Hopefully it's an omen of good things to come!

Game Notes: Robert Morris University @ North Central College (12/17/16)

Final Score
Robert Morris 77, NCC 70

Game Summary
It was a subpar game for the Cardinals (6-3) as they struggled to get anything going for about three or four minutes. The Eagles (9-4) led 6-3 early before the Cardinals got a 7-0 run going to take control, but the Eagles were right back in it and took control of the game. Robert Morris would lead by as many as seven with about two minutes before halftime, but the Cardinals scored eight unanswered points to take the lead, but the Eagles grabbed it right back to take a 34-33 lead into the break. North Central came out flat to start the second half as Robert Morris opened the first three minutes on a 12-2 run to take firm control of this one. They pushed the lead as high as 15 a couple minutes later before the Cardinals finally woke up. They cut the lead to as low as eight over the next three minutes, but the Eagles hit a pair of threes to ultimately end the Cardinal threat. They led by as many as 17 before the Cardinals chipped away in garbage time.

Key Stats

• Darius Paul (RMU): 7-10 FG (1-1 3PT), 5-6 FT; 20 pts, 10 reb (4 off). I figured going into this one that we would have a good battle between Paul and Alex Sorenson, and Paul clearly won the war. He was able to get to the basket with relative ease and did a good job on the glass. He was also a solid defender with his length down low.
• Erwin Henry (NCC): 11-20 FG (1-3 3PT); 23 pts, 5 reb (1 off), 2 ast. Don't let this stat line fool you; Henry had a good game overall, but most of his points came late when the game was effectively over. He got a few easy layups in the final minute to pad his stats, and seemed to be one of the few who cared in this game. He was one of the guys who helped bring North Central back while it was still a game, but he committed a dumb loose ball foul, his fourth, that forced him out of the game.
• Jack Bronec (NCC): 3-4 FG, 2-2 FT; 8 pts, 9 reb (3 off), 1 stl. Jack was a key for me coming into the year as someone who was supposed to show a lot of promise, and as a key piece off the bench to relieve Alex Sorenson. He did a phenomenal job of that tonight as one of the few guys who seemed to really care, as he did a great job on the boards, and showed some promise offensively (though his miss was pretty ugly, and was a makable shot). That one nit aside, he played very well.

Final Thoughts
I don't know why, but this team is struggling. Granted, they played without Connor Raridon, who has a hand injury and will miss a significant chunk of time, but I don't know that Raridon would have made a difference. The Cardinals were a bipolar team today; they had stretches where they played to their potential, and other times where they looked lackadaisical. I've heard secondhand talk about D-Term at North Central being a cause, and maybe there's something to it.

If you look at the minutes, Jagger Anderson sat for a big chunk of the second half after some lazy defense, and Alex Sorenson only played 24 minutes, possibly because he also looked out of it. It made for some good minutes for guys like Bronec and Matt Cappelletti, who is going to get some significant playing time with Raridon out.

North Central closes out the calendar year on the road, as they play a tournament in Fort Lauderdale next week, then have a week off before heading up to Stevens Point. After that, we resume CCIW play. Hopefully the Cardinals have their act together for Augustana and North Park, two tough tests for when we resume.