Game Notes: (MBK) Illinois College @ North Central College (12/22/18)

Final Score
NCC 67, Illinois College 63

Game Summary
This one didn't start all that auspiciously as the Cardinals (10-1) lost the opening tip, but did get the opening bucket about a minute in. The Blueboys (3-9), meanwhile, answered back quickly and turned the game into quite the back and forth affair. Illinois College took control fairly quickly though, pushing their lead as high as six late in the half before the Cardinals reasserted control with a 15-5 run to close the half leading 35-31. Early in the second half it looked like the Cardinals were going to assert dominance and pull away as they managed to push the lead as high as seven, but a 12-2 Blueboy run turned it back into a dogfight. The Cardinals answered that with a 7-0 run of their own capped by a Jack Bronec dunk, and while IC managed to come back and tie it, the Cardinals managed to regain the lead pretty quickly and were up as many as nine with about eight minutes to go. But again, the Blueboys refused to go quietly, getting a huge layup off a steal to pull within two with just under a minute to go. Another turnover gave the Blueboys a chance to tie or take the lead, but Blaise Meredith came up with the block of his life on a would-be tying layup and Matt Cappelletti came up with the rebound and was fouled in the process. He missed the front end of a one-and-one, but somehow got his own rebound, was fouled again, and this time iced the game away.

Key Players

• Connor Raridon (NCC): 9-16 FG (1-4 3PT), 5-6 FT; 24 pts, 6 reb (2 off), 5 ast, 2 stl. After joining the 1,000 Point Club a week prior at Wheaton, Connor has continued to play well, and really did so here. He was able to get into the paint for his favored fadeaway jumper, while also hitting from midrange and the one time from deep, plus distributing the ball. He also played some solid defense as now the undisputed leader of the team. A solid two-way performance helped key a win here.
• Jack Bronec (NCC): 3-3 FG, 2-2 FT; 8 pts, 4 reb (2 off), 1 blk, 1 stl. With no true elite big this season, Bronec has stepped into a starting spot, but his role hasn't changed much. He's logging more minutes a year than he did his first three, but he's still really only counted on for playing solid interior defense, getting some rebounds, and making one or two plays at the offensive end. He did that and more yesterday with a perfect shooting night, including a thunderous dunk that I gave a little more oomph on the call for just because I didn't expect it.
• Kane Wildermuth (IC): 6-7 FG; 12 pts, 3 reb (1 off), 1 ast, 1 blk, 1 stl. Wildermuth played a few games for the Cardinals last season and has played fairly well getting regular minutes for the Blueboys this season. He had a good offensive game in this one, but was in serious foul trouble, seeing just ten first half minutes with three fouls, and played sparingly in the second half due to said trouble before fouling out late. All in all though, it was a good return to Naperville for the senior.

Key Stats

• NCC: Outrebounded IC 35-26. I already brought up the no true center thing for North Central, but the Cardinals are still outrebounding opponents by five a game so far this season. It helped especially in this one with a hot shooting Blueboys team, as 13 of the Cardinal boards came on the offensive glass, leading to 21 second chances points; Illinois College, by contrast, had nine.
• IC: 9-24 3PT (37.5%). That number is about on par for the season for the Blueboys, although maybe a tad lower. But in the first half they went 7-16 from beyond the arc, and that heat check is what had them in control for a large chunk of the opening 20 minutes. Even though they cooled off in the second half, their deep shooting kept them in the game longer than I'd anticipated going in, and they deserve credit for going toe-to-toe with a solid Cardinal team.

Final Thoughts

This was a fun one, as it marked the return of former North Central assistant coach Steve Schweer to Gregory Arena. Schweer was Raridon's top lieutenant for the past two seasons, and Illinois College gave him his first shot as a head coach. It was good to see him again, and it's clear he knew how to game plan for this Cardinal team. It helped, again, that his guys shot extremely well in this game. They gave the Cardinals fits.

For North Central, this was kind of an ugly game, but you have to be able to win the ugly ones, and they did here with that key final sequence. The win gives the Cardinals ten for the year so far as they closed out the home portion of their 2018 schedule on the right foot. North Central gets a break for Christmas for a couple days, and then they're off to Las Vegas for the D3Hoops.com Classic. This will be their last non-conference tuneup before it's back to the Gauntlet.