Game Notes: (MBK) Greenville University @ North Central College (11/15/19)

Final Score
NCC 122, Greenville 103

Game Summary
No, that's not a typo. Getting right to work with The System, the Panthers (1-2) used an early 9-0 run after surrendering a basket on the opening possession to take control. But the Cardinals (1-1) clawed their way back, finally taking their first lead with about 12 and a half minutes left in the half. The teams would trade advantages over the next couple minutes before a 10-2 Cardinal run gave them a seven point lead, but eight straight by the Panthers eliminated it. The Cardinals finally got a little breathing room again right before the half, taking a 47-42 lead into a much needed intermission. The Panthers would tie the game at 49 early in the second half, but the Cardinals responded with a 9-0 run extended to a 14-2 run to take firm control. Greenville would get no closer than seven the rest of the way as North Central began to pull away, going up by 20 with 11 and a half to play, and from that point on would lead by no less than 12, as eventually Todd Raridon was able to go to his reserves.

Key Players

• Connor Raridon (NCC): 6-8 FG, 6-7 FT; 18 pts, 15 reb (2 off), 12 ast, 1 blk. That's a triple-double, by the way; the first in NCC men's basketball history. To an extent, it can come with an asterisk: against a non-System team he's not pulling down 15 rebounds, but it's his ninth career double digit assist game and one off his career high (and program record), and most of his points came in halfcourt sets. Maybe more important though: going up against a pressure defense when primary ball handlers are going to turn it over a bunch, he had just four, good for a 3:1 assist-to-turnover ratio, which is outstanding. Add it to the list of cool things I've gotten to announce.
• Matt Cappelletti (NCC): 22-26 FG (2-5 3PT), 1-3 FT; 47 pts, 7 reb (2 off), 3 ast, 1 blk, 2 stl. Okay, this one gets a definite asterisk. Cap's previous career high was 35, when he lit up Husson last year at the D3Hoops.com Classic in Vegas. But Friday he was 20-21 from inside the arc, almost all of them right around the basket. He got a couple dunks in the second half as the Cardinals were pulling away, and most of the rest were layups. Almost all of these can be atributed to The System: with the Panthers gambling in the backcourt and getting their share of takeaways, in cases where the Cardinals were able to break it, Cap was often alone going to the basket and had an easy bucket. Forwards always have big scoring nights against System teams... but this was a monster one.
• Henry Johnson (GRE): 7-10 FG (2-3 3PT), 1-2 FT; 17 pts, 1 reb (1 off), 2 ast, 1 stl. It's hard to pick just one guy off a System team, so I'll go with their leading scorer, who was efficient from the floor, even if he didn't do a ton else.

Key Stats

• NCC: 76 points in the paint, 47 fast break points. I'll go with both of these, as both are indicators that you played a System team. Yeah, they turned the ball over a bunch, but the tradeoff was a bunch of easy looks at the basket.
• GRE: 25 turnovers. I'll go over System numbers in a moment, so I wanted to look at something else. This was very reminiscent of NCC women's games running the System; the Cardinals often had a ton of turnovers too, so this was really no exception. Of course they cause the Cardinals fits, but they got in their own way a few times too.

Greenville System Watch

• Wholesale Line Changes: 20-25. I'm bringing back this feature after going away from it after a while with the NCC women. Greenville's guys played longer stretches before a fresh five came to the table than the women did. Usually with the women shifts were maybe 40-60 seconds; Friday night they were closer to two minutes before a fresh group came in.
• NCC Turnovers: 35. This is to be expected. The full court pressure gave the Cardinals fits, especially early in the game; North Central had 19 turnovers in the first half. Of the 35 giveaways for the game, 21 came off steals; Chris Jackson paced the team with five, Riley Simmons and Sontiago Grady each had four, and Barry Nixon logged three. Those 35 turnovesr led directly to 36 Greenville points, which is... less than ideal.
• GRE 3PT: 16-53 (30.2%). Of Greenville's 91 shot attempts, 53 came from beyond the arc. This is normal for a System team, and the percentage is pretty consistent with what you can expect. They were at about 36 percent going into the game, and struggled a bit thanks to good Cardinal defense. The Panthers hit a few early to get that early lead, but finished 6-25 in the first half, a big reason why they trailed.

Final Thoughts

It's hard to make too many conclusions based off of this game. I was always used to announcing for a System team, so to have the shoe on the other foot is a little different. Cap likely won't have another 40 point game (maybe 30 on a great shooting night, but that's about it), and Connor probably won't log another triple-double. But against an opponent you should beat, the Cardinals ultimately took care of business, and now they don't have to worry about a System team again until potentially the NCAA Tournament. It was a good way to right the ship after a season-opening loss. The Cardinals are currently in the midst of a fairly long layoff, but continue the homestand on Monday when Rose-Hulman comes to town.