Legendary Aurora Christian basketball coach Don Davidson had a saying, one that I first heard as a senior in high school when we won a regional for the first time in a while and made it to the sectional final: "Good teams play in March." We played in March that year, losing to the hosting Byron Tigers, future home of North Central point guard Mayson Whipple. Mayson got to play in March once at the collegiate level: as a freshman on the legendary 2015 team. The men have gotten to this level in each of thepast two years. And now in 2018, the Cardinals return to The Dance.
The Cardinals are one of three CCIW teams to make it to The Dance, along with auto bid winner Augustana, who picked up their sixth CCIW Tournament championship over the weekend, and Illinois Wesleyan, who was a bubble team after dropping a pair of games to North Central over the weekend but had a strong enough resume to make it in. This makes eleven years running of the CCIW getting at least one extra bid, and the sixth time in seven years that the conference has gotten two at large berths.
So with all this in mind, let's take a trip up I-94 to see where North Central will be playing, and who will be joining them.
Game Summary
In a game I'd like to forget, the Pointers (4-3) were able to grab the early lead and never relinquished it, though the Cardinals (1-7) were able to keep it reasonably close for part of the quarter, though the Pointers led 23-13 after one. The Cardinals were unable to get the lead back down to single digits, struggling from outside and not getting their first triple until Mayson Whipple hit with 6:19 to go in the half. The Pointers kept up the pressure and led 37-20 at halftime. The effort and energy picked up a bit after the intermission, but the Pointers were still able to push the lead to 53-29 after three, and the fourth quarter turned into garbage time, with coach Michelle Roof getting her end of the bench players some minutes for the second straight outing.
Key Stats
UWSP: Outrebounded NCC 55-25. That includes 21 Pointer offensive rebounds, nearly equaling the total number of Cardinal rebounds. The Pointers had decent size, but a lot of this was just related to not boxing out and getting out-hustled.
Taylor Barrett (UWSP): 5-12 FG, 3-4 FT; 13 pts, 11 reb (3 off), 2 stl. I could have gone with Ashley Leiterman (13 pts on 5-7 shooting, but only four rebounds) as my choice here because she was more efficient, but Barrett dominated the glass in addition to having a pretty good day from the floor.
Mayson Whipple (NCC): 5-10 FG (1-4 3PT); 11 pts, 3 reb, 2 ast. It's an improvement over the Wesleyan loss, for what it's worth, but not by a ton. She really struggled in the first half, shooting just a pair of threes and making one, spending most of her time with the ball dribbling around the perimeter. She started to attack the basket a little more in the second half, showing that she still can beat anyone off the dribble. I'm just not sure why she's not doing it more.
North Central "System" Watch
UWSP Turnovers: 19. One thing I will give the Cardinals credit for is that they are still causing some havoc on defense. The team recorded nine steals, paced by two apiece from Lyndsay Brennan, Page Desenberg, and Diamond Calicott, who played just six minutes last night.
NCC 3PT: 3-27 (11.1%). You're going to have off shooting nights... but not like this. Last night was just awful. It took almost 14 minutes for the Cardinals to get their first three, and that was it for the first half. They hesitated to shoot for much of the night, and even when they did shoot, everything was off. You know they're due for one of those games where they get red hot, but I don't know when that game is coming.
NCC FT: 5-10 (50%). And we're still around the season average. They actually hit their first three as a team last night, impressing basically the entire table, before regressing to the mean. A slight improvement in this game wouldn't have affected the outcome, but through eight games I think we can safely say: this team isn't good at the line.
Final Thoughts
It's pretty telling when the high point of your night was having a stoppage in play because a player lost her hair extensions. I think we were laughing way harder about it than we should have, but in a game like last night's, I don't know what else you can do.
I was cautiously optimistic going into last night. Before the season I'd chalked this one up as a loss, but when I went to prep for the game yesterday I saw UWSP's record and stats, and wasn't overly impressed. I figured with an effort similar to what was put in against Carthage last week a win was possible, but it became apparent pretty quickly last night that the Cardinals just didn't have it.
I've said this multiple times already this season, and others have confirmed with me: we're all getting flashbacks to the 2011-12 season, which is not a season you want to have flashbacks from. That year was awful, and the 2017-18 campaign is shaping up to be just as bad, if not worse. But Michelle Roof put it well last night before I left: "This is why we coach: to figure this crap out." They have a few days to figure this crap out before getting back into action on Saturday as we close out the four game home stand against Dubuque.
Game Summary
It was a defensive battle early, but the Cardinals (3-3) took control early with a couple of baskets while locking down the other end. The Pointers (3-3) hung around though by playing solid defense as well, while the Cardinals missed some free throws to keep it close. Stevens Point finally hit a couple threes late in the half to make it close again, but some late free throws and a couple Cardinal buckets pushed the lead back to eight, going into halftime up 26-18. North Central forced turnovers on the first three possessions of the second half and tried to pull away, though the Pointers hung tough and kept it close for a while. A couple Cardinal threes expanded the lead, and they finished it off by going to the basket.
Key Stats
UWSP: 16-58 FG (27.6%). When I talk about how dominant a defensive performance this was... This is your proof. North Central just held the defending national champions to under 30 percent shooting. The Pointers also hit just 32.4 percent of their two point shots. Incredible.
Alex Sorenson (NCC): 7-9 FG (1-2 3PT), 5-13 FT; 20 pts, 12 reb (3 off), 1 ast, 2 blk. Alex struggled a bit offensively early (at the line especially), but controlled the game for the first ten minutes or so by locking down the defensive side. He heated up in the second half while continuing to control the glass. He also got his rhythm down at the line in the second half, hitting five of eight freebies.
Erwin Henry (NCC): 5-9 FG (0-3 3PT), 8-8 FT; 18 pts, 10 reb (1 off), 2 ast, 1 stl. Erwin did pretty well in the first half (eight points, six boards) but really took over as the second half continued. He managed a pair of key and-ones to prevent the Pointers from mounting more of a comeback. For his first start of the year, this was a great game.
Final Thoughts
The defending national champs had to reload a little bit, and they have the size, but they had no answer for a tough Cardinal defense. If you didn't know much about either team coming in, you'd think the Cardinals were the defending national champs the way they played. They were ready for this one, and showed it from the get go.
This was a huge win for the program and could be critical later in the season, but the important thing for now is that the Cardinals don't get too high after this win. They blew a 16 point lead at Aurora a couple weeks ago, and had multiple chances to beat Alma on Sunday but couldn't get over the top despite holding them without a basket for the final 4:27 of the game. Consistency is key, and we'll see how they handle it. The boys get a few days to rest up and prepare for Albion this coming Tuesday.
