Game Notes: (WBK) Wheaton College @ North Central College (1/13/18)

Final Score
Wheaton 72, NCC 55

Game Summary
I was worried this game was going to end up a lot like last year's matchup, as the Thunder (11-4, 5-2) scored the game's first six points and seemed to be in total command. But the Cardinals (4-11, 2-4) bounced back and ended up tying the game at eight. Wheaton started to pull away again with the next eight points, but the Cardinals kept it around that margin, trailing 20-13 after one. The Cardinals scored the first four points of the second quarter to cut the lead to three a couple times, but went into a scoring drought for the final 5:43 of the half. The Thunder couldn't pull away though and took a 28-20 lead into the break. Wheaton got the lead into double digits almost immediately into the second half and began to pull away in the third as they got hot from the floor. They led by as many as 26 before settling in with a 55-31 lead after three. Midway through the fourth, the Cardinals went on a 13-3 run to bring the margin back to the mid-teens, and the Thunder couldn't push the lead back over 20, while the Cardinals ran out of steam.

Key Stats

• Wheaton: 27-66 FG (40.9%). I'm running the full game lines here, but I'm going to break this down by halves, because it really tells the tale. The Thunder shot 11-36 in the first half (a 30.6% clip), missing quite a few jumpers, which helped keep the Cardinals in the game. They went 16-30 (53.3%) in the second half and started hitting those jumpers. It was a bad three point shooting night (6-26, 23.1%), but they hit more than enough mid range jumpers to pull away.
• Jordan Myroth (WHE): 2-4 FG (0-1 3PT), 0-2 FT; 4 pts, 6 reb (3 off), 5 ast, 1 blk, 4 stl. I could have gone a number of directions with this one. Jennifer Berg had seven points and a game high 13 rebounds, Hannah Frazier scored a game high 15, and Maggie Dansdill added 12, but Myroth did all the little things really well in this one, filling the stat sheet in a number of categories. She earns the nod today.
• Lyndsay Brennan (NCC): 4-7 FG, 2-4 FT; 10 pts, 8 reb (1 off), 2 ast. Brennan had the best day offensively for the Cardinals, doing a decent job getting to the basket and getting a few layups to fall. On a night where Mayson Whipple didn't really have it as much (3-15 FG, including 2-8 from deep), Brennan needed to do a little more, and just didn't quite do enough. She had a pretty good game overall though.

North Central "System" Watch

• Wheaton Turnovers: 13. Wheaton always played very well against The System, and while the Cardinals don't run it traditionally anymore, they still use a lot of full court pressure, and unfortunately 13 turnovers isn't good enough. The Cardinals notched five steals, paced by two from Bekah Foley. For reference, North Central had 15 turnovers.
• NCC 3PT: 8-28 (28.6%). This is about par for the course for the Cardinals. I have to credit Wheaton for playing suffocating defense on the perimeter and limiting the damage, especially in the second half holding the Cardinals to 3-12 from outside.
• NCC FT: 9-14 (64.3%). North Central seems to be starting to figure out its free throw shooting. Part of it once again was getting its actual good shooters to the line, but they just plain shot a little better today. This should put them over 60 percent for the season.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• @ AUG 89 (10-5, 3-3), CRL 54 (5-10, 2-4)
• IWU 83 (13-2, 6-0), @ NPU 53 (8-7, 3-3)
• @ CAR 71 (10-5, 3-3), ELM 67 (8-8, 4-3) (OT) 
• Bye: Millikin (5-10, 0-6)

Final Thoughts
In past years, I've gotten really bummed after the inevitable losses to Wheaton. I feared the worst tonight. The worst didn't happen. Wheaton missed a bunch of its jumpers early, and that helped keep the Cardinals in the game. Unfortunately, and what wasn't really covered up above, was that the Cardinals missed a ton of layups in this one. By the third quarter Wheaton figured out the shooting backgrounds and started to hit their shots again, which enabled them to pull away. I really have to credit the Cardinals though for refusing to give up, making that late run to turn a laugher into something a little more reasonable. I can live with a 17 point loss to Wheaton, especially when the team gave their all.

This was an emotional night, as before the game we had a ceremony to honor the late Helen Muleya, who played for North Central from 2010 through 2012. I didn't really know Helen, but hearing about her passing last May broke my heart. Michelle Roof gave Helen's family her jersey from her time at NCC, which was a very moving moment. It was also alumni night, and it was good to see a lot of players I've gotten to know over the years.

Big picture, falling to 2-4 in the conference isn't great. But amazingly, the Cardinals are only a game out of a CCIW Tournament spot. It seems way too optimistic to still be talking this for North Central, but even though they've struggled this season they're starting to figure things out as we go along. They close out the first half of conference play at Augustana on Wednesday and at Elmhurst Saturday afternoon.