Game Notes: (WBK) Carthage College @ North Central College (1/9/19)

Final Score
Carthage 67, NCC 57

Game Summary
This might have been the fastest game I've ever worked, but it didn't start great as the Lady Reds (10-5, 4-2) scored the game's first five points, but the Cardinals (3-13, 1-6) started to crawl back from the free throw line. Carthage jumped out to a 19-8 lead early on, prompting a timeout, after which the Cardinals worked their way back, trailing 22-15 after one. North Central played a strong second quarter to push the Lady Reds' lead as low as four, but they had an answer every time, taking a 37-30 lead into the locker room. North Central started the second half strong with two straight layups, but the Lady Reds started to connect from beyond the arc to pull back away, leading 53-39 after three. Carthage would push the advantage as high as 18 before both teams put in the ends of their benches and the Cardinals got a couple garbage time buckets to trim the lead.

Key Players

• Madie Kaelber (CAR): 8-11 FG (3-5 3PT), 3-3 FT; 22 pts, 3 reb, 1 ast, 4 stl. After missing last year's date at Merner due to injury, last night was the Madie Kaelber Show on both ends of the floor. She wreaked some havoc on defense, jumping passing lanes a couple times early to lead to Carthage baskets, while also bombing away from deep and converting on layups as well.
• Bailey Gilbert (CAR): 5-14 FG (3-8 3PT), 3-4 FT; 16 pts, 10 reb (4 off), 5 ast, 2 stl. Good teams always need someone doing the dirty work as well, and Gilbert fit that role well. She wasn't as efficient shooting the ball as Kaelber was, so instead wreaked havoc on the boards and did a great job finding open teammates.
• Haydn Braun (NCC): 5-9 FG (4-7 3PT); 14 pts, 4 reb, 1 stl. Braun hasn't had the greatest of sophomore years. She hasn't gotten a ton of runtime, sitting behind Tyonne Howard and Alanna Newsome for significant stretches of games. But she got hot early last night and was able to stay in the game, creating an intriguing lineup of her and the aforementioned two (when normally Lyndsay Brennan or Allison Pearson would take her place) in the backcourt. Hopefully this is the spark needed for her to take the next step.

Key Stats

• NCC: 18-59 FG (30.5%), 6-27 3PT (22.2%). The good news is that after an abysmal night at the free throw line on Saturday, the Cardinals went 15-17. Unfortunately the rest of their shooting failed to catch up. Amazingly, the Cardinals shot better in the second half (31.3/27.3) than the first (29.6/18.8) despite seemingly going ice cold for significant stretches of the second half.
• CAR: 8-21 3PT (38.1%). The Lady Reds snapped a four game losing streak in Naperville behind finally having a good shooting night at Gregory Arena. Only hitting eight doesn't really capture the impact though, as they hit threes at crucial moments when it seemed like the Cardinals were threatening, and that was really the difference in the game. Some of these were defensive breakdowns, but a lot were just good offensive movement. Tip your cap.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• ELM 77 (7-8, 3-3), @ CRL 70 (7-8, 2-4)
• @ WHE 76 (12-3, 6-0), MIL 75 (5-10, 1-5)
• IWU 93 (12-3, 5-1), @ NPU 60 (6-10, 2-5)
• Bye: AUG (10-5, 4-2)
• MBK: NCC 85 (13-3, 5-2), @ IWU 83 (9-6, 2-4)

Final Thoughts

The Cardinals missed some layups last night, which could have turned the tide, but I don't think it would have been enough. North Central did a great job defending inside as they contained forwards Rachel Szydlowski and Maggie Berigan to 17 points on 7-17 shooting, but Carthage just wasn't missing from deep. It's their first win in Naperville since Stephanie Kuzmanic pushed off on her game-winner in 2014, thus killing one of my favorite memes in CCIW basketball. But you know what they say: all good things must come to an end.

The loss drops the Cardinals to 1-6, remaining in the basement by half a game. I have to hope that the second half will be kinder, but the Cardinals had a favorable first half schedule with five home conference games, and dropped them all. I'll cover the halfway point next week after we've reached it, but the Cardinals close it out with a trip down to Bloomington to take on Illinois Wesleyan on Wednesday night.