Game Notes: Albion College @ North Central College (12/19/17)

Final Score
NCC 92, Albion 78

Game Summary
In Todd Raridon's first crack at 500 career wins, it was the Britons (1-7) who came out of the gate strong, scoring on five of their first six possessions and building an early 9-2 advantage. But the Cardinals (6-4) wouldn't go quietly into the night, fighting back and staying in the contest. Albion led 17-9 at one point, but the Cardinals scored seven straight to pull back within one, and had an answer when the Britons pushed the lead back to six. The Cardinals fought back, grabbing their first lead of the game at 25-24 with 6:51 left in the first half, and from there the game turned into somewhat of a back and forth, with each team grabbing small leads before going into the locker room knotted up at 40. Whatever Todd Raridon said in the locker room worked; the Cardinals grabbed the lead nine seconds into the second half on an old fashioned three point play and never looked back. Six minutes later the lead was ten, and a three on the Cardinals next possession signified that the game was all but in hand. North Central would lead by as many as 23, and with 2:21 to play Raridon called off the dogs, with the end of Albion's bench making the final margin closer than the second half of this game made it seem, and at double-zeros he became the 13th active coach in Division III to reach 500 wins.

Key Stats

• NCC: 19-28 FG in 2nd half (73.1%). For reference, it's not like the Cardinals had a bad shooting night in the first half (10-21). They were just absolutely locked in in the second half, and it's not like this was a complete dominance in the post (32 points in the paint), though the Cardinals did dominate the paint. They were hitting jumpers left and right as well, finishing 6-13 from three for the night, including 3-6 in that second half.
• Connor Raridon (NCC): 12-15 FG (0-1 3PT), 12-13 FT; 36 pts, 4 reb (2 off), 8 ast, 2 stl. On a night where the officials were calling everything, Connor adjusted and made the Britons pay at the free throw line, but he was hitting literally everything. Despite missing his one three attempt, he also took a number of midrange jumpers, and they pretty much all fell. By my count in the official play by play, he went 6-7 on jumpers not counting that three, and factoring in that a pair of those were in the paint. His 36 points are a career high, and with his eight assists he moves into North Central's top ten all time in assists with 205, and he's 68 away from Adam Teising's all time mark. That record could fall by season's end.
• Alex Sorenson (NCC): 9-15 FG (1-3 3PT), 5-9 FT; 24 pts, 7 reb, 3 ast, 1 stl. Even though this was Connor's (and his dad's) night, Sorenson helped make sure the Cardinals weren't going to squander this one. He was nigh unguardable; Albion's Ryan Lowe started the game on him defensively, and he's a big dude (listed as 6'11", but he's more like 6'9" and stocky), but Sorenson loves eating those guys up. He used his speed and low post skills to dominate him and other defenders who had to challenge him due to the sheer number of fouls being called. His seven boards were also a game high.

Final Thoughts

The one major downfall to last night's game came in the first half: Blaise Meredith was fouled with just under seven minutes to play in the first half, and hurt his knee on the play. He stayed in long enough to nail a pair of free throws and was immediately lifted for Raridon. He looked to be in serious pain after the fact and did not return to the game. He's played fairly well through the first ten games of the season, but I don't know the exact nature of his injury and whether or not this is something that will keep him out for an extended period of time. We'll have to see.

I touched on it a little bit above, but this was a foul-happy game. It was physical, to be sure, but no more so than any usual game you'd see; the officials just kept whistling contact. There were a combined 48 fouls and 63 free throws, which slowed the game down a ton, yet amazingly we only had one player foul out, though both teams had to go pretty deep in their rotations in the first half due to the sheer number of players picking up a pair of fouls. I'm not a huge fan of games like that, and I'm sure if you talked to both coaches, they would have said the same.

With the Cardinals' win tonight, North Central head men's basketball coach Todd Raridon becomes one of 13 active @NCAADIII coaches with at least 500 career victories! #WeAreNC #d3h pic.twitter.com/15gctbOVzE

— NCC Cardinals (@NCC_Athletics) December 20, 2017

But this was a night about Todd Raridon and his reaching the 500 win plateau, even if he may downplay the significance of the achievement. He was already on his way off the floor as I was making the announcement about him winning number 500, but he got an ovation anyway. I congratulated him after the game, and his response was that he was disappointed so few people were in attendance (180 was the official total), though given that it's the week before Christmas and North Central's campus is pretty much deserted, it makes sense. Either way, it was a nice win for this program that got off to a slow start this season, but seems to be making some strides as we near the end of December.

Final from Gregory Arena, and some mementos from Todd Raridon’s 500th career win! #WeAreNC #d3h pic.twitter.com/8fhkHU87YS

— Lucas Mitzel (@northsider89) December 20, 2017

The Cardinals have a nice long week and a half break to enjoy the holidays and spend time with family, returning to action on Saturday, December 30th when we welcome Robert Morris- Chicago back to Gregory Arena for the second straight year. While this game will have basically no impact on North Central's postseason outlook, it's still going to be a tough game and an important tuneup before CCIW play resumes two weeks from tonight.