Game Notes: (WBK) Augustana College @ North Central College (1/23/19)

Final Score
NCC 58, Augustana 49

Game Summary
The Cardinals (5-14, 3-7) got hot to start this one off, hitting some early threes to taken an 11-4 lead. This prompted a timeout by the Vikings (11-8, 5-5), who did manage to hang around a little bit, trailing 18-12 after one quarter. Offense ground to a halt in the second quarter though, as it took four minutes for the Cardinals to break the ice, and Augie another minute before they got on the board. The Vikings closed the gap to five with about a minute to go, but a three made it 28-20, a lead the Cardinals took into the locker room. The Vikings scored the first four points in the second half to narrow the gap, but the Cardinals locked down on defense, holding the Vikings scoreless for another five minutes before going bombs away to take a 42-31 lead after three. But the Vikings didn't go quietly as the Cardinal offense slowed down a little bit before pushing the lead back to double digits about halfway through the frame. The Vikings managed to pull back within four with just under two minutes to play, but the Cardinals put the game away at the free throw line for their second straight win.

Key Players

• Natali Dimitrova (NCC): 7-14 FG (1-1 3PT), 1-2 FT; 16 pts, 6 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl. Nat helped set the tone early in this one, scoring 14 of her points in the first half, including nine in the opening quarter. Her first bucket came on a postup, where I completely expected her to get double teamed by Augie's second big, but help never came. I mentioned then and there that they needed to feed her. This was especially true as the game went on since she was being guarded in the post by a 5'7" guard multiple times. Even so, this was a pretty good performance for her as she continues to show how much she's improved over the past couple years.
• Page Desenberg (NCC): 3-6 FG (2-3 3PT); 8 pts, 4 reb (1 off). The stat line may not seem impressive, but Page was the catalyst for the Cardinals taking command of the game late in the third. She hit back to back threes late in the frame to build a 13 point lead, and hit a big layup in the fourth off an inbounds pass to push the lead back to double digits. Simply put: she was clutch last night.
• Scooter Lopez (AUG): 0-3 FG (0-3 3PT); 0 pts, 4 reb, 5 ast, 7 stl. This is the first time I've ever included as a key player someone who didn't score. I could have easily gone with leading scorer Izzy Anderson (17 pts on 5-16 shooting) or Alexis Jones (15 pts, 8 reb, 3 stl), but Lopez' line is crazy. She wreaked havoc on defense while getting her teammates involved, and did a decent job on the glass even though her team got badly outrebounded.

Key Stats

• NCC: 24 turnovers. Augustana plays more of an up-tempo style of play; it's not quite The System, but they did press a lot. The Cardinals didn't have a ton of trouble with the press in and of itself, but they didn't do a great job taking care of the ball. If you'd told me before the game that the Cardinals would have this many turnovers, I'd have been worried that it would be a blowout loss for North Central. But thanks to efficient shooting (7-14 from three and 11-14 at the line) combined with the below, the Cardinals escaped with a win.
• AUG: 1-21 3PT (4.8%), 8-17 FT (47.1%). I figured I had to include the free throw numbers, because those aren't ideal, but the three point shooting line? That's absurd. Augie's postgame wrap called it "cold shooting," but I don't think that does it justice. It took 38 minutes for the Vikings to hit a three. I've never seen that bad of a shooting night before. There were a fair share of open looks here too, but they just didn't fall.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• CAR 67 (14-5, 8-2), @ ELM 59 (8-10, 4-5)
• @ IWU 97 (16-3, 9-1), NPU 52 (7-12, 3-7)
• WHE 76 (15-4, 9-1), @ CRL 59 (7-12, 2-8)
• Bye: MIL (5-13, 1-8)
• MBK: NCC 93 (16-3, 8-2), @ MIL 92 (10-8, 4-6) (OT)

Final Thoughts

This was a really weird game. Even the officiating was kind of bizarre; they let a lot of things go early but also called some weird fouls in some instances too, while also letting a bunch of travels go. I'm not saying this to complain, because overall I think they did a fine job tonight. It was just a weird, low-scoring game.

You have to give credit to North Central. Augie was cold and just missed a ton of shots, but the Cardinals also played really good defense in this one. It's their first multi-game winning streak of the season, and I think Maggie McCloskey-Bax's prediction back in early December is starting to come true. She told me following the Millikin loss that, "We're young; we'll get there." They're definitely getting there. Following up a great effort in a five point loss at Illinois Wesleyan with two straight solid wins? Things are rounding into form.

That's before you get into how impactful of a win this is. It locks up a season sweep of the Vikings, which in and of itself is big because it includes a win in Rock Island, not an easy place to play. But for the conference race, this is huge. The Cardinals have road rematches against North Park and Millikin on the docket for their next two games. Both those teams left Naperville with victories in December, so if the Cardinals run their win streak to four, they tie the season series with both, and barring a major upset by one of those teams or Carroll against the cream of the CCIW crop, the Cardinals will own the tiebreaker over North Park, Millikin, and Carroll when it comes to the CCIW Tournament field because of the aforementioned sweep of Augustana.

I'm getting too far ahead of myself though. First up on the docket is North Park on Saturday. Those Vikings won by a single point in overtime back in December, but seem to be struggling and are battling some injuries. Hopefully the Cardinals can come back from the north side of Chicago with a third straight win and a ton of confidence heading down the home stretch.