North Central and the NCAA Regional Rankings: Week 1 Edition

There are a number of posts related to North Central basketball that I write up every year. You see the multitude of Game Notes that I put up following every game I work, plus the ones I attend as a fan on the rare occasions that I get to go to a game. You also see the season previews and recaps, plus previews of conference tournaments and, when we are fortunate enough, pods in the NCAA Tournament. But in order to reach that magical land of bracketology, you either need to win the aforementioned conference tournament (which for last year's men's team, "they shouldn't have let us in") or hope for one of a number of at large bids.

I've never really done a full primer on how these work exactly; I've always just gone straight into "Here's where North Central is ranked." But that doesn't really do justice to what's going on with these rankings. If you've read entries from prior years, you at least have an idea: the NCAA releases four sets of rankings: on the first three Wednesdays in February, and a final one after all the conference tournaments have been played. It's a benchmark of who they think the best teams in each region are, but they have a greater purpose: these are used to fill the NCAA Tournament field. The primary criteria for regional ranking, and thus, entry to the NCAA Tournament, include win-loss percentage against Division III opposition (duh), strength of schedule (in a nutshell, two-thirds opponents' winning percentage plus one-third opponents' opponents' wining percentage, with home and road factors included), head to head results, common opponent results, and in later rankings, results against regionally ranked opponents. Secondarily, any games played against non-Division III opponents will also be factored in.

The national committee is made up of one head coach or athletic administrator from each of Division III's eight regions. Those committee members also chair regional advisory committees, which are made up of one head coach or athletic administrator from each of the region's conferences. These regional committees are tasked with ranking the top teams in their region. The national committee has the right to make changes to these regional rankings, but for the most part seems to trust the regional committees with this task and accept what they come back with. But the final rankings mainly get turned into the national committee, who use them to fill the rest of the field (what the NCAA calls "Pool C"). The way it works is they take all of the automatic bid winners out of the rankings. The highest remaining ranked teams in each region then get a place at "the table." The merits of all eight teams are debated, and the one the committee deems most worthy based on the above criteria gets put into the field. The next team up from that region then gets a seat at "the table," and the process is repeated until all Pool C bids have been claimed.

Interestingly, Todd Raridon is the CCIW representative on the Central Region committee for the men. He will recuse himself from any discussion involving North Central, as will other members if their own institutions come up for debate. The same would happen at the national level as well, and there doesn't appear to be any impropriety at the D-III level with this system in place.

Anyway, this is all a long-winded explanation of how we arrive at the lists of teams I will link to below, and where North Central fits into the picture.

Game Notes: (MBK) North Park University @ North Central College (2/3/18)

Final Score
NCC 61, NPU 60

Game Summary
The Vikings (4-16, 1-11) crashed an emotional Senior Night party with an early barrage from beyond the arc, leading 9-2 less than five minutes in. Just two minutes later the deficit was double digits, and the Cardinals (16-5, 9-3) just couldn't get anything going offensively. North Park eventually opened up a 24-8 lead ten minutes in and had silenced Gregory Arena. Then the Cardinals woke up a bit, sandwiching a North Park layup with back to back threes to inject a little life in the building. The Vikings kept their advantage at a decent clip, still leading by double digits with 4:35 to go, but the Cardinals closed the half on a 9-0 run from that point, capped by a Blaise Meredith layup with four seconds to go. The Cardinals grabbed a 31-30 lead immediately to start the second half, but the Vikings answered immediately and regained control with a 5-0 mini run, though the Cardinals would not go away, eventually retying the game at 45. The teams traded some one possession leads from there before the Vikings made their run: a 9-0 stretch that spanned nearly five minutes had the Cardinals on the ropes, but North Central immediately answered with a Tommy Koth three. Alex Sorenson added a pair of free throws a minute later, and Connor Raridon tied the game again with a jumper with about a minute and a half left. The teams dug in for a close finish, with North Park's Colin Lake picking Sorenson's pocket with a minute left, then setting up Billy Kirby for the go-ahead layup with about 40 seconds left. On North Central's ensuing possession, they went to their two best guys, with the Vikings inexplicably leaving Alex Sorenson wide open from the top of the key, and he made them pay by burying a three with 27 seconds left. Out of timeouts and with the gym rocking so loud the officials didn't hear North Central's request for one, the Vikings went to Colin Lake on the final possession. He missed an eight foot teardrop, somehow got his own rebound, missed the putback, and saw a loose ball that was almost certainly out of bounds off North Park trickle out to Jack Gurvey who put up a prayer from 15 that hit off the back of the iron and triggered a roar as the Cardinals escaped with the win.

Key Stats

• Alex Sorenson (NCC): 6-13 FG (2-2 3PT), 7-12 FT; 21 pts, 7 reb (3 off), 4 ast, 1 stl. One of the seniors being honored last night, Alex struggled a little bit early in this one. The Cardinals had a hard time finding openings to get entry passes to him in the post. When he did get the ball down low, he got fouled multiple times and struggled at the line in the first half (just 2-6). He made up for it in the second half though by getting some open looks, settling in at the line, and even hitting a three to help keep the Cardinals in it. On his heroic three, Alex had received the ball in the high post, handed the ball to Connor Raridon, who tried to back into that same high post while Alex drifted out, and Connor dished it out to a wide open Sorenson who made the Vikings pay. After the final buzzer, he leapt close to the Cardinal bench in what looked like celebration but described as relief for escaping with a win.
• Tommy Koth (NCC): 4-7 FG (2-3 3PT), 1-2 FT; 11 pts, 2 reb (2 off). Earlier this week, Erwin Henry suffered a season-ending injury, a huge blow to this contending Cardinal team. It meant that roles were going to have to change and guys were going to have to step up. One of them is Koth, who pre-injury was North Central's ninth man and guy who would get a handful of minutes a night to spell the main rotation guys. He played 15 minutes last night and had arguably the best night of his career, hitting a couple huge threes, including one with the Cardinals down seven late. They don't need him to score 11 a night the rest of the way, but if he can chip in maybe six or seven while continuing to add excellent perimeter defense, they'll be in good shape.
• Colin Lake (NPU): 5-15 FG (2-6 3PT), 2-3 FT; 14 pts, 5 reb (1 off), 4 ast, 1 stl. With the graduation of Juwan Henry and sabbatical of All American Jordan Robinson, the 5'4" Lake is the best player on what has become a pretty dreadful North Park team. Lake has done basically all he can this year to keep the Vikings afloat, and did so last night, leading the team in scoring and coming up with that key steal from Sorenson in the final minute. I feel kind of bad for him after missing two fairly open looks on that fateful final possession, but he gave his all last night. I have to tip my cap.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• @ CRL 77 (8-12, 4-7), AUG 69 (16-5, 8-4)
• @ WHE 82 (14-6, 7-4), ELM 70 (11-10, 4-8)
• @ CAR 85 (12-8, 7-4), MIL 70 (10-11, 3-9)
• Bye: IWU (16-4, 9-2)

Final Thoughts
I was a little worried after the fact that I almost jinxed the Cardinals last night. Augie's road loss up in Waukesha was kind of shocking, and I'd made the comment that we'd be in second place by the end of the night. Early on in the game though it looked like we'd stay tied with Augie. So to say that the ending last night was a relief would be an understatement. Both Alex Sorenson and Todd Raridon expressed sentiments as such after the game.

Big picture wise, a Cardinal team that I'd written off for the top of the conference two weeks ago is now just half a game back of Illinois Wesleyan for first place. Augie is still clearly in the mix, but it's down to a two-team race for fourth between Carthage and Wheaton. It's going to make Wednesday's first set of regional rankings that much more interesting, and I'll have a writeup about it before Wednesday's big showdown.

Speaking of which, that showdown is against Augustana at home. Place your bets on Twitter at @northsider89 for the Grey Giovanine Jacket Watch, which I'll tweet out later. The Cardinals follow that with a bye on Saturday, one last home date with Carroll a week from Wednesday, then two tough road dates with Wheaton and Illinois Wesleyan. The latter may end up being the game that decides the site of the conference tournament. However, the focus for now is on Wednesday.

Game Notes: (WBK) North Park University @ North Central College (2/3/18)

Final Score
NCC 71, NPU 61

Game Summary
The Cardinals (5-16, 3-9) jumped out to the immediate lead, but it was the Vikings (8-12, 3-8) who took over from there on out and held narrow leads before the Cardinals tied it, but the Vikings did take a 16-14 lead after one quarter. They started to pull away in the second, taking a 32-24 advantage with 4:16 to play. Then the Cardinals warmed up, closing the half on an 11-1 run to go up 35-33 at the break. They kept that momentum after intermission with a strong offensive showing, answering every North Park basket, though the Vikings would keep it close, trimming North Central's lead to one with about three minutes to go, but the Cardinals pushed the lead back to five by the end of the quarter at 51-46. North Central effectively ended the threat just four minutes into the fourth after Michaela Reedy capped a 12-3 run with a three to push the lead to 14. The Vikings cut it to six with just under two minutes to play, but this time the Cardinals closed it out at the line to pull out a Senior Night win.

Key Stats

• Mayson Whipple (NCC): 4-15 FG (0-6 3PT), 3-4 FT; 11 pts, 8 reb (2 off), 6 ast, 4 stl. Mayson's outside shot wasn't falling last night, but she was hitting fairly well on her driving attempts to the basket. She also did a phenomenal job on the glass, got her teammates involved as she always has, and wreaked havoc defensively.
• Michaela Reedy (NCC): 3-15 FG (2-11 3PT); 8 pts, 9 reb (5 off), 2 ast, 2 stl. Mike has had a lot of shooting nights like this where she's getting open looks and they just aren't falling. This was one of them, but she always brings a lot more to the table. She might be the best rebounder on the team, as she goes up strong to pull down rebounds, even amongst taller players. Her nine boards were a team high.
• Lyndsay Brennan (NCC): 5-8 FG (0-1 3PT), 0-2 FT; 10 pts, 8 reb (5 off), 6 ast, 7 stl. I was going to mainly focus on the two seniors, but Lyndsay put up a quadruple-nickel. That deserves recognition. That steal total unfortunately didn't crack the top five in program history (the record is nine, and of that game, plus the four games tied for second with eight, only one came in The System Era. Basketball is weird.)
• Lauryn Alba Garner (NPU): 7-9 FG (3-3 3PT), 1-1 FT; 18 pts, 1 ast, 1 stl. The freshman impressed me last night. She was the key to North Park's offense, and she's going to be a force for this team for years to come. It hasn't been a great year for the Vikings, but they've got a nice piece to build around.

North Central "System" Watch

• NPU Turnovers: 27. After a few games of this number being lower than I'd like, the Cardinals finally wreaked a ton of havoc. North Park threw a fair number of passes away, but to their credit the Cardinals picked up 16 steals on the night, paced by Brennan's seven and Whipple's four.
• NCC 3PT: 6-32 (18.8%). Go figure; the Cardinals lose a game where they shot over 30 percent from beyond the arc, then follow that up with a win where they shot under 20 percent. It took until midway through the second quarter for the Cardinals to get their first three, as they got a couple during that 11-1 run to finish the first half at 2-14. They weren't much better in the second half at 4-18, but hit some key ones, including a few major momentum threes to help end this one.
• NCC FT: 13-22 (59.1%). I'd like to see this figure be a little better, but given where they've been this season, it works. The Cardinals were over 60 percent in the second half (10-16), so they made them when it counted, which is good.
• NCC Charges Drawn: 3. I'm reviving this feature for this game. It was a staple in prior years because Anita Sterling was the master at this art, but the team did a phenomenal job last night. They drew one early, but I missed who took it. Maya Walls and Natali Dimitrova drew the last two and did an excellent job of doing it.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• @ CRL 75 (7-13, 4-7), AUG 69 (12-9, 5-7)
• @ WHE 70 (17-4, 10-2), ELM 58 (12-9, 8-4)
• Wheaton clinches a berth in the CCIW Tournament
• @ CAR 78 (15-6, 8-4), MIL 60 (5-15, 0-11)
• With Carthage's win, North Central is eliminated from CCIW Tournament contention
• Bye: IWU (18-2, 11-0)

Final Thoughts
I didn't realize the Cardinals had gotten bounced until I went to update the standings on the sidebar of Confessions of a Sportscaster this afternoon. I'm not surprised by it given how the season has gone, and it makes it two years in a row Senior Night has been the night of mathematical elimination. This time though, I'm just glad it resulted in a win. After Wednesday night's debacle, this team needed a pick me up. They got one last night. I'm sure the emotions of Senior Night helped, but so did stifling defense and opportunistic passing lane jumps. The loss is North Park's eighth in a row, and has to be a tough one for them. They're not mathematically out yet, but for all intents and purposes they're just playing out the string now.

Looking at the big picture, the top of the conference is set. Illinois Wesleyan has its toughest test in a long time with a trip to Wheaton on Wednesday and might be their toughest test on the road to a 16-0 CCIW campaign, something that hasn't happened in a very long time. Meanwhile, Carthage and Elmhurst appear to all but have those last two spots locked up. That leaves the bottom five, including a free falling Augie to fight for position.

The Cardinals have four games left, the next three of which are on the road. They have a winnable game at Millikin on Wednesday, then after a Saturday bye head up to Kenosha to play Carthage, who they haven't beat there since 2006. They then close at Wheaton and at home against Augustana on the final day of the regular season. Those last three are tough, but if the Cardinals can at least get to 5-11 in the conference, I think I can live with it.

Super Bowl LII Predictions and Prop Bets

And so as Super Bowl Sunday approaches, I need to do one final look at an NFL football game for this season. And as has become tradition, Adam will be joining me once again.

He beat me fair and square in the regular season in our Pigskin Pick 'Em contest, but we always do a special for the Super Bowl with some of the prop bets that you can make. We won't be wagering money; instead we're doing this with a point system: bet 100 points to win however many based on lines from Bovada.

Those will follow below. But first, here's how we're both predicting the Super Bowl to go.

Game Notes: (WBK) Carroll University @ North Central College (1/31/18)

Final Score
Carroll 60, NCC 55

Game Summary
This one started out well enough for the Cardinals (4-16, 2-9), who fought off a decent start from the Pioneers (6-13, 3-7) with some timely threes and solid free throw shooting and took a 17-12 lead after one quarter. North Central would lead by as many as seven early in the second, but the Pioneers wouldn't go away, cutting the lead to one a couple times before settling into the half down 30-26. The Cardinals came out of the gate strong in the second half, scoring five straight points to push the lead to nine, but Carroll went on a 13-4 run to tie the game at 39. A three gave the Cardinals the lead right back, but they only took a 42-41 advantage into the final frame. The teams traded advantages a bit in the early going, but the Cardinals seemed in control with a six point lead with just under five minutes to play and a five point lead with just under three to go on a Haydn Braun layup. But that was all the Cardinal offense could muster as Rachel Van Sluys scored five straight to tie the game with about a minute and a half to play, and Emily Majerus hit the go ahead three with 40 seconds to play to give the Pioneers the season sweep.

Key Stats

• Brittney Wald (CRL): 9-19 FG (2-3 3PT), 3-5 FT; 23 pts, 12 reb (4 off), 1 ast, 1 stl. Wald was the Carroll offense for much of this one. She scored 12 of Carroll's first 19 points before starting to be contained a little bit, but she still got too many good looks. Her 12 rebounds were also a game high... and she's a 5'6" guard.
• Rachel Van Sluys (CRL): 5-13 FG, 5-8 FT; 15 pts, 10 reb (5 off), 2 stl. Van Sluys missed a significant chunk of the season due to injury and this was her first game back, and she made sure to make the most of it. She came off the bench to ease her way back in and didn't really do anything in the first half (just two rebounds), but came alive in the second half. She scored seven of Carroll's last ten points that sealed the game for them, including the tying basket and the clinching free throws.
• Maya Walls (NCC): 4-7 FG (2-2 3PT); 10 pts, 4 reb (1 off), 1 ast, 2 blk, 3 stl. I had a bit of a hard time deciding which Cardinal to highlight, but Maya had a decent game. She could have done a better job rebounding, but was a pretty good part of the offense, getting to the basket a couple times and hitting a couple threes, while making a couple great plays on defense.

North Central "System" Watch

• Carroll Turnovers: 16. This number isn't good enough, especially considering the Cardinals had 19 on their end. North Central did a pretty good job jumping passing lanes though as they logged 12 steals, paced by four from Michaela Reedy, plus Wall's three. They also forced a shot clock violation.
• NCC 3PT: 9-28 (32.1%). It's rare for the Cardinals to shoot this well percentage wise from deep and lose the game. They got some well timed threes throughout the game, but couldn't hit a tying effort late after Majerus' go-ahead bomb. The percentages were also pretty consistent across the halves (4-12 in the first half, 5-16 in the second).
• NCC FT: 6-9 (66.7%). I can't really complain about this part. The Cardinals hit their first three and started 4-5 at the line before regressing to the mean and going 2-4 the rest of the way. They got to the line fairly early and I would have liked to see that trend continue, but it just wasn't meant to be. All in all though, this raises their season average a little bit.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• @ IWU 99 (18-2, 11-0), AUG 70 (12-8, 5-6)
• Illinois Wesleyan clinches a CCIW Tournament berth
• @ WHE 54 (16-4, 9-2), CAR 35 (14-6, 7-4)
• @ ELM 55 (12-8, 8-3), MIL 53 (5-14, 0-10)
• Millikin is eliminated from CCIW Tournament contention
• Bye: NPU (8-11, 3-7)
• MBK: NCC 79 (15-5, 8-3), @ CAR 75 (11-8, 6-4)

Final Thoughts

Photo from WONC Sports

One important note to take from this game is that the Cardinals weren't at full strength. Bekah Foley was on crutches last night and I don't know whether she'll be good to go or not. There was also late doubt about Mayson Whipple, who participated in warmups, but did not play last night with a hamstring. I also don't know whether this is a long term injury or not.

Despite being down their best player and one of their better freshmen, you have to beat the bad teams at home. Carroll isn't that good, but my sense of deja vu proved to come true as the Cardinals went ice cold in the final minutes and once again, Carroll took advantage. They celebrated quite a bit after the win, which I don't blame them for. It's their first win in Naperville this century and for quite the young team, it's a confidence booster going forward. But for the Cardinals, it's an incredibly frustrating loss. I know it was for me.

Looking at the big picture, Illinois Wesleyan locked up the formality of a CCIW Tournament berth, which we pretty much all knew was going to happen. Their biggest threat to a 16-0 conference record is next Wednesday when they head to Wheaton, but it's all but a foregone conclusion that the tournament will be in Bloomington. The Cardinals aren't mathematically eliminated, but a loss Saturday to North Park will be the death blow to a dismal season. It will be Senior Night however, as I bid farewell to the final players remaining from the legendary 2014-15 season.

Game Notes: (MBK) Elmhurst College @ North Central College (1/27/18)

Final Score
NCC 87, Elmhurst 74

Game Summary
Getting a shot at a quick Revenge Game, the Cardinals (14-5, 7-3) played pretty even with the Blue Jays (11-8, 4-6) for the first few minutes, overtaking an early 7-5 Elmhurst lead with a 9-2 run to grab control. The Blue Jays were able to keep it close, cutting the lead to one at one point, but a 9-1 Cardinal run extended the lead once again. North Central led by as many as 13, but thanks in part to a flagrant foul on Connor Raridon, Elmhurst was able to cut it to 10 by the break at 40-30. The Blue Jays came out of the locker room pretty strong, keeping the margin around that 10 point gap, though the Cardinals used a 9-0 run that included a Matt Cappelletti dunk to push the lead as high as 18. But like the prior matchup a week ago, the Blue Jays refused to go away and started hitting some outside shots, trimming the lead back down to eight, but that was as close as Elmhurst would get.

Key Stats

• Connor Raridon (NCC): 2-7 FG (1-1 3PT), 10-15 FT; 15 pts, 7 reb (2 off), 12 ast, 1 blk, 3 stl. Connor's had some subpar shooting nights this season, but he made up for it by getting to the line often in this one, while also doing a fabulous job of distributing the ball. His 12 dimes tied for the second most in a game in program history, while also breaking a pair of marks: the single season mark of 127, and the all time mark of 273, both held by Adam Teising.
• NCC: Six players in double figures. It was hard to pick just one more Cardinal to go alongside Connor, who was one of the six. Alex Sorenson did his usual thing (17 points, 12 rebounds), Erwin Henry led all scorers with 18 points on an efficient 6-10 shooting night, Matt Cappelletti added a monster 14 point, seven rebound, four block night, and Mike Pollack and Aiden Chang added 11 and 10 points, respectively. Normally for the Cardinals it's been one guy really going off to help give them their wins, but this was a very balanced attack with everyone getting involved.
• Jake Rhode (ELM): 5-11 FG (2-6 3PT), 6-6 FT; 18 pts, 5 reb, 3 ast, 3 stl. There were a few guys I could have gone with here for Elmhurst, but the freshman guard really impressed in this one. He hit a couple shots late in the second half to help keep Elmhurst in it, and he made his presence known on the other end of the floor with three steals. He'll be someone to watch next year when the Blue Jays will be really good again.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• CAR 81 (11-7, 6-3), @ AUG 78 (15-4, 7-3)
• @ IWU 87 (16-3, 9-1), NPU 47 (4-14, 1-9)
• @ MIL 94 (9-10, 2-8), WHE 75 (13-6, 6-4)
• Bye: CRL (6-12, 2-7)

Final Thoughts

This was a big win for North Central after the prior Saturday's loss to this same Elmhurst team. The Blue Jays did what they do again, hitting some long range shots to stay in the contest, but the Cardinals had too much firepower and in the second half made the Jays pay for some of their mistakes. It was a fitting end, as the Cardinals were able to hold the ball to run out the clock, giving me a chance to announce that Connor had broken both the single season and career assists records. The scary part: dude still has two more years of eligibility left. His one downside to this game was the flagrant foul he was whistled for late in the first half (which personally I thought was ticky-tack, though I can see why they called it). The problem was that they gave the wrong guy the free throws for it (Derek Dotlich took the shots, but Justin Fox was fouled on the play). The Cardinal bench protested, and the officials consulted with us at the table to see if we saw who was fouled, but it happened behind the play so we didn't. In the second half, one official came to the table and admitted his mistake, which I give him credit for.

Big picture wise, this weekend went about as perfectly for the Cardinals as you could ask it to. Other than Illinois Wesleyan winning, the other major contenders for the top of the league all lost, with Carthage leapfrogging Wheaton for fourth place in the conference. NCC remains in third, but is now in a tie with Augustana for second place just two games out of first place. The Wheaton loss was a shocker, especially given the margin. Both our official scorer and Clark, our SID, gave comparable shocked reactions to my showing them the scores in progress. It's still a five, maybe six, team race for the four tournament spots depending on how you feel about these Blue Jays (my take: they're a year away, but can still play spoiler this season).

The Cardinals have a tough one ahead, as they head north of the border to take on Carthage on Wednesday. Their regular season matchup there last year saw the Cardinals blow a late lead and lose in overtime, though they followed that up with a buzzer beater in the CCIW semifinal before knocking off Augie up there to win the tournament and get an invite to the NCAA Tournament. It will be a tough game against a Red Men team that has wins against Illinois Wesleyan and now Augustana this season. They'll be back home on Saturday for Senior Night against North Park.

Game Notes: (WBK) Elmhurst College @ North Central College (1/27/18)

Final Score
Elmhurst 61, NCC 41

Game Summary
The game started out much better for the Cardinals (4-15, 2-8), who opened the scoring and took the early 2-0 lead. Unfortunately the Blue Jays (11-8, 7-3) scored the next eight to take control and grabbed a 21-8 lead after one quarter. The second saw the Cardinals clamp down a bit on defense and close the gap to eight, but Elmhurst scored the last five points on the frame and took a 31-18 lead into the locker room. The Jays went on an extended 12-0 run to start the second half and effectively end the contest, as Maya Walls put the Cardinals on the board in the second half five and a half minutes into the frame, and the Jays took a 50-27 lead after three. The Cardinals didn't give up though, opening the fourth quarter on a 15-2 run to make it 52-40 with 4:25 left, but Natali Dimitrova's three to cap that run was the last field goal the Cardinals could muster, as Elmhurst pulled away again in the final minutes.

Key Stats

• Mikaela Eppard (ELM): 6-13 FG, 6-7 FT; 18 pts, 11 reb (1 off), 4 ast, 2 stl. A week before, Eppard went off for 24 and 16, so for the Cardinals to limit her damage a little bit was an encouraging sign. Eppard finished under 50 percent shooting, and found herself running the offense a little bit through the high post, but she still got hers before the night was done. Eppard is certain to be a First Team All-CCIW player, but the question remains of how much consideration for Most Outstanding Player she'll get.
• Kaela Jones (ELM): 3-8 FG (2-4 3PT), 3-4 FT; 11 pts, 6 reb (2 off), 6 ast, 1 stl. There were a couple other options for good Elmhurst players on here, but Jones definitely sticks out with her strong all around game, and she scored some key points off the bench in the second half. I was surprised she's not a starter, but she's a key piece for Elmhurst's second unit, which will help keep them in games.
• Mayson Whipple (NCC): 6-13 FG (2-5 3PT), 3-3 FT; 17 pts, 4 reb (1 off), 4 ast, 3 stl. Mayson's had some games where she struggled a little bit, but she had a solid performance in this one. She attacked the basket a little more rather than settling for stepback threes, while also pulling up from the elbow or free throw line a couple times. All in all, a pretty good performance, especially noting the three steals she had.

North Central "System" Watch

• Elmhurst Turnovers: 17. I wish this number were a little higher, obviously, but it's not a bad total. The Cardinals did force a ten second count in the backcourt in the first half, while tacking on nine steals. Mayson Whipple had the aforementioned three, while Bekah Foley added a pair.
• NCC 3PT: 5-27 (18.5%). Really, you could argue that this was the game. North Central had some good looks, and they just didn't fall. They didn't hit their first three until the second quarter, and really only got a boost during that 15-2 run in the fourth. Had they shot a little better, obviously it would have been a closer game, but I would have been interested to see just how much closer.
• NCC FT: 4-8 (50%). The Achilles heel of this team reared its head again, albeit in limited fashion. If you take Mayson Whipple away, the team went 1-5 at the line, which isn't acceptable. It didn't cost the Cardinals the game, but it's a momentum killer to miss out on three point plays or chances at free points. For the season, the Cardinals do remain above the 60 percent mark, and 60.6.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• CAR 80 (14-5, 7-3), @ AUG 74 (12-7, 5-5)
• @ IWU 105 (17-2, 10-0), NPU 53 (8-11, 3-7)
• WHE 75 (15-4, 8-2), @ MIL 53 (5-13, 0-9)
• Bye: CRL (5-13, 2-7)

Final Thoughts

Photo by Steve Woltmann (North Central College)

This one went about as expected for the Cardinals, who are all but guaranteed a losing record in the CCIW for the first time since 2013-14. But I was proud of the way the team fought back in the fourth quarter to make it interesting. Had they just been able to hit a few more shots, it could have come down to the wire. Alas, it was not meant to be.

Big picture wise, the Cardinals are now alone in eighth place in the CCIW, half a game back of Carroll and ahead of only winless Millikin. Elmhurst remains tied with a hot Carthage team for third place (and the Lady Reds have the head to head tiebreaker). But really, everyone is looking up at Illinois Wesleyan who is running away with the conference.

The Cardinals have two more in a row at home, and both are winnable games. They get a shot at revenge with Carroll coming to town on Wednesday before North Park comes in on Saturday for Senior Night. Hopefully in a week's time I'll be talking about the 4-8 in CCIW North Central Cardinals.