Game Notes: (MBK) Augustana College @ North Central College (1/31/19)

Final Score
NCC 68, Augustana 63

Game Summary
Tipping off a day late due to extreme cold, the Cardinals (18-3, 10-2) managed to stay toe to toe with the Vikings (19-2, 11-1), trading the lead a handful of times and tying at eight separate junctures early in this one, the last of which came at 21-all. Then the Vikings went on one of their expected runs, scoring eight straight to go up 29-21 with just over three minutes to play in the first half, but the Cardinals refused to let Augie put them away, managing to pull back with five at 33-28 by halftime. In the second half a switch flipped as a previously cold-shooting Cardinal team started hitting, knocking down threes on three out of four possessions to grab a 37-36 lead before adding another a couple minutes later to take a 42-36 edge. The Cardinals would push their advantage as high as seven at 44-37 and kept it for a few minutes before the Vikings made their critical push. Aided by a Mike Pollack technical foul, the Vikings embarked on a 9-0 run to take a 56-52 edge. Then the Cardinal defense buckled down and held the Vikings off the board for about five minutes, getting a huge transition layup to take a 57-56 lead followed on the ensuing possession by a clutch three. Augie answered with a contested one at the other end to snap their drought and pull back within one, then had a chance to take the lead at the line, but missed the front end of a one-and-one, and the Cardinals made them pay with a dagger three. North Central went 5-6 at the line in the final 37 seconds to seal the upset.

Key Players

• Matt Cappelletti (NCC): 7-9 FG (3-4 3PT), 1-2 FT; 18 pts, 7 reb (3 off), 1 ast, 2 stl. Cap had a clutch night in this one. He was able to get to the basket for a couple easy looks in this one, and was clutch from beyond the arc. He hit two of his threes in the early going of the second half, including the go-ahead one at 37-36. He also delivered the dagger to push the Cardinals' lead back to four with about 48 seconds to go.
• Blaise Meredith (NCC): 7-10 FG (1-1 3PT), 3-8 FT; 18 pts, 2 reb, 2 ast, 2 blk, 2 stl. The free throw numbers leave a lot to be desired, but the Cardinals don't win last night without his efforts. Blaise scored 13 of his points in the first half to keep the Cardinals in the ballgame, and filled the stat sheet in other places. Maybe most importantly, he didn't hit his head on a backboard like the last time these two teams met.
• Pierson Wofford (AUG): 7-11 FG, 1-1 FT; 15 pts, 6 reb (4 off), 3 stl. Wofford missed a significant chunk of last season, and his return helped push this Vikings team to another level. He showed why last night, wreaking havoc with a couple steals near the midcourt line that he took the other way, including for a fast break dunk during the 8-0 run. He hit a couple big shots in the second half, but it just wasn't quite enough.

Key Stats

• NCC: 7-19 3PT (36.8%). I'm giving the whole line, but it really was a tale of two halves. The Cardinals hit just one of nine from deep, just narrowly missing several of those. In the second half, regression to the mean was the Cardinals' friend, as their 6-10 clip was instrumental in the Cardinals pulling the upset.
• AUG: Tied North Central with 32 rebounds apiece. The first time these teams met, Augie outrebounded the Cardinals 38-25, not unexpected given a level of size disparity in the Vikings' favor. But the Cardinals did a good job neutralizing Augie's bigs; their two tallest forwards, Donovan Ferguson (6'9") and Micah Martin (6'11") combined for just five, with Wofford's six leading the game.

Grey Giovanine Jacket Watch

This almost takes precedence over the game itself. If you're new to Confessions of a Sportscaster or CCIW basketball in general, Augustana has distinguished itself as the premier program in the conference. Much of this is credited to Viking coach Grey Giovanine, who is a hell of a coach. He's also kind of a lunatic with a penchant for throwing off his sport coat, prompting this feature, where we track when the jacket comes off.

I ran a pool involving a few people working last night as well as a couple fans I know. We had a nice range of predictions, most of which had the game going a little way's into the first half before it came off. Instead, we were blessed with a string of three straight offensive rebounds, frustrating Giovanine to no end, and after the final one prompted a swift removal and toss to the manager with 14:20 remaining in the first half. Longtime fan Steve Born won the pool with a guess of 14:30 remaining in the first half. If you want to see the removal and toss in all of its glory, you can see it at about 42:15 of the YouTube video (though I'd go back about a minute before that for the full context).

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• @ CRL 77 (8-13, 4-8), WHE 70 (15-6, 8-4), 
• @ IWU 84 (12-8, 5-6), MIL 72 (10-10, 4-8), 
• @ ELM 87 (11-9, 6-5), CAR 80 (7-13, 2-9)
• Bye: NPU (4-16, 2-9)
• WBK: @ MIL 81 (7-13, 3-8), NCC 67 (6-15, 4-8)

Final Thoughts

Photo by Mark Black

I have a lot to unpack out of this one. At some point in the future I'm going to do a ranking of the games I've announced for North Central, and as of right now, this one is the leader in the clubhouse. Augustana came into the game ranked #1 in the country in the D3Hoops poll, and when you factor in the conference race, this was a huge one. Coming into last night, Augie had won every matchup in Merner since I became the full time men's announcer, so to get that monkey off my back was nice.

It's North Central's second ever win over the number one team in the country; the first was a win at Illinois Wesleyan back in 2006. It's also bound to catapault the Cardinals up from #22 in the rankings next week. From a conference standpoint, the other important result broke the Cardinals' way with Carroll upsetting Wheaton. It gives North Central a two game lead for the #2 spot and the bye in the conference, while pulling within a game of Augustana. The remaining schedule does favor the Vikings, but if they lose another one and North Central runs the table, many of the tiebreaker scenarios will favor the Cardinals. The Wheaton rematches for both teams are the key, in my view.

I'm not going to waste too much space here talking about regional rankings, but I'll touch briefly on them. The first set comes out next week, and while this win probably won't have too big of an impact with this first set, it definitely will in the second set.

Finally, I have to say how proud I am of the crowd turnout last night. On a still bitter cold night with classes having been cancelled, a good-sized contingent of students came and packed the west bleachers. Early in the game, I saw someone with a banner of the Augustana logo, except the Viking face was replaced with Crying Jordan. I've never been so proud of a student section, especially since that whole side really came to life in the final 2:30 of the game. I don't think you can discount the impact that had down the stretch. And of course, they stormed the court when the final buzzer sounded. Thankfully no one got hurt, but when you beat the top team in the country, you have to do it.

The Cardinals have their second bye this weekend, then continue their three-game homestand with Illinois Wesleyan coming to town on Wednesday.