Game Notes: (WBK) Knox College @ North Central College

Final Score
NCC 62, Knox 54

Game Summary
Kicking off a new era of North Central basketball, the Cardinals (1-0) took a few minutes to get on the board as the Prairie Fire (0-1) scored the game's first five points. But the Cardinals hung around to only trail by one after the first quarter. The Cardinals took a four point lead early in the second, but the Fire went on a 10-0 run to flip the script, and they took a 28-22 lead into the break. They would lead by as many as ten in the third quarter, but a 9-0 Cardinal run got it close again, and the teams traded one point leads to end the third, with Knox leading 38-37 with ten minutes to go. The Cardinals grabbed the lead about a minute into the fourth and never relinquished it, following that up with back to back threes, and the Prairie Fire never got back within four after that.

Key Players

• Alanna Newsome (NCC): 5-12 FG (2-6 3PT), 5-7 FT; 17 pts, 3 reb (1 off), 4 ast, 3 stl. Newsome played well in North Central's exhibition at Loyola last weekend and followed that up with an outstanding game off the bench tonight. She hit the second of the back to back threes in the fourth to give North Central a seven point edge and was phenomenal on defense.
• Tyonne Howard (NCC): 2-10 FG (1-5 3PT), 3-8 FT; 8 pts, 5 reb, 7 ast, 3 stl, 1 blk. Howard didn't have the best night on offense, but she was everywhere on defense as well. Howard came up with the ball on defense more than three times, but was the beneficiary of some great defense by teammates as well. The shots will fall on other nights, so it was good to see her find other ways to be a key piece.
• Jarrelyn McCall (KNOX): 8-17 FG (0-1 3PT), 1-2 FT; 17 pts, 7 reb (2 off), 2 ast, 1 stl. McCall was the big reason why the Prairie Fire had the halftime lead, as she took over the game in the second quarter, scoring 11 points. But she was quiet much of the second half despite having a solid game on the boards.

Key Stats

• NCC: 13 steals. A lot of this was chaos being caused by Howard and Newsome, but the team defense was outstanding. All told, the Cardinals forced 25 turnovers, including drawing three offensive fouls/
• Knox: 1-12 3PT (8.3%). Knox's outside shots just didn't fall, as they missed all eight attempts in the second half. That's a little bit of luck for a North Central team that also struggled a bit from deep (7-27 for 25.7%). Both teams will shoot better as the season goes on.

Final Thoughts

I decided to change up the pattern a little bit this year, sticking with the three "Key Stats" only changing it specifically to players while then making sure to touch on some of the team stats. Given the coaching change as well, I had to drop the old "System Watch" as well. Once conference play starts I will still go through scores there as well.

All in all, this was a pretty good game. It wasn't the prettiest at times as North Central shot poorly in the first half before getting it figured out late, but the defense was excellent in this one, hence the 13 steals. One thing I worry about still is free throws, as North Central hit just 60 percent of theirs. But they hit enough late to seal the deal, which is all that matters.

It's a nice first win for Maggie McCloskey-Bax, and I'm already excited for this season. This is going to be a fun team to watch this year, especially since this group seems to have a fire and a swagger I haven't seen in a while. They hit the road now for the rest of the month, with their next game coming in about a week and a half against Benedictine.