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.