Game Notes: (MBK) Illinois Wesleyan University @ North Central College (1/8/20)

Final Score
NCC 82, IWU 69

Game Summary
With The Belt^TM in the building and up for grabs, this was an important one, as the holders in the Titans (9-5, 3-2) kept pace in the early going with a trio of one point leads in the first five minutes. But the Cardinals (11-3, 4-1) had their offense going early and used an 8-0 run to take a 17-10 lead about six minutes in. A Titan timeout stopped the bleeding as the Cardinals went into a five minute dry spell and the Titans tied the game at 20, but the Cardinals closed the half strong, regrabbing the lead and not looking back en route to a 34-27 advantage going into the break. North Central scored five quick points out of halftime, forcing another timeout, and while the Titans were able to push back a little bit, an extended 11-2 Cardinal run put North Central in complete control. The Cardinals led by as many as 22 before a late Titan rally got the home crowd a little nervous: an 11-0 run got the margin back down to single digits, but late free throws helped seal the deal and give the Cardinals possession of The Belt^TM for the first time in program history.

Key Players

• Matt Helwig (NCC): 8-12 FG (2-3 3PT), 4-4 FT; 22 pts, 4 reb (2 off), 2 ast. The juco transfer grabbed the mantle of "Titan Killer" left by Tommy Koth with an outstanding game. He split his points evenly between halves, getting to the basket early in this one and hitting a three to give the Cardinals that early 17-10 lead. He came out of the locker room in the second half guns blazing as well, hitting a three and following that up with a nifty layup that forced the Titans to regroup. Said layup was what prompted the claiming of the mantle:
  

  Beware the guards from Aurora: Matt Helwig is @IWUhoopscom’s new nemesis. #d3hoops

  — Lucas Mitzel (@northsider89) January 9, 2020

• Matt Cappelletti (NCC): 6-11 FG (3-6 3PT), 2-2 FT; 17 pts, 4 reb (2 off), 1 ast. I was going to say that Cap has struggled a little bit this season (he was at 13.4 PPG and 7.4 RPG coming into last night, bearing in mind that the Greenville game skews things a bit), but he played really well in this one. He was able to hit from beyond the arc and was able to get to the basket when he needed to as well. 11 of his 17 came in the first half, including all three of his triples, and he did enough after halftime to help the Cardinals grab firm control of the game.
• Luke Yoder (IWU): 0-9 FG (0-6 3PT), 2-2 FT; 2 pts, 3 reb (2 off), 6 ast. Normally I'd put one of the Titans who played well in this spot, and there were a couple good candidates.  Cory Noe (21 pts on 5-9 shooting, including 4-5 from beyond the arc and 7-10 from the line) helped the Titans avoid the blowout loss, and Charlie Bair (14 pts, 3 reb on 6-10 shooting) was pretty good inside, but I have to note this. With starting point guard Grant Wolfe out with a concussion, the onus was on the hometown freshman to step up, and for much of the season he has. In 13 games going into last night (six starts), Yoder was averaging about nine points a game on absurd 54/52/94 splits. Then Todd Raridon sic'd Blaise Meredith on him for a good chunk of the game and he and his Cardinal teammates made Yoder's night a living hell. His six assists were a career high, and he only turned the ball over twice, but the highly touted Yoder struggled in this one. He'll get better, to be sure, but this was not his best game, to put it mildly.

Key Stats

• NCC: 21-26 FT (80.8%). With one important note about this: all of these free throws came in the second half. For their part, the Titans only took two first half free throws, so it's not like there was a disparity or anything. This was a big reason why the Cardinals were able to pull away: they got to the line a bunch and made the most of it. It helped too that the Titans went into intentional foul mode late, making the final minute or so borderline unwatchable.
• IWU: 7-24 3PT (29.2%). I had a hard time picking out a stat here. The Titans won a bunch of categories in this game (points off turnovers by four, second chance points by three, bench point by five), but a team that came into the game shooting about 36 percent from three should have hit a couple more triples in this one. I don't know how much it would have helped in the grand scheme of things other than maybe preventing the Cardinals from pushing their lead to 22, though.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• @ ELM 80 (12-1, 3-1), AUG 71 (8-5, 2-2)
• CAR 73 (10-3, 2-2), @ CRL 65 (9-5, 2-3)
• MIL 69 (4-10, 1-4), @ NPU 64 (2-11, 0-4)
• Bye: WHE (9-4, 3-1)
• WBK: @ MIL 74 (9-4, 2-2), NCC 53 (5-9, 1-4)
• WBK: @ IWU 82 (10-4, 4-1), NPU 51 (10-3, 3-1)
• WBK: @ AUG 63 (8-6, 3-2), ELM 58 (6-7, 1-3)
• WBK: @ CAR 74 (8-5, 3-1), CRL 57 (5-8, 1-4)
• WBK: Bye- Wheaton (9-4, 2-2)

Final Thoughts

I need to write up a special post about The Belt^TM, because I feel like there's no real context of it on Confessions of a Sportscaster and I need to bring some more context besides the brief blurb I wrote after the Wheaton game. I didn't bring it up in the scoreboard watch today because, as mentioned above, North Central now has possession of The Belt^TM for the first time in program history.

For the game itself though, this was probably the best game I've seen the Cardinals play this season. They played tremendous defense for much of the contest and, unlike on Saturday where Connor Raridon pretty much willed the team to victory, his teammates got involved. It was weird to see Raridon without a single point in the first half, but he made up for it in the second half and put up a typical Connor Raridon line (13 points, seven rebounds, nine assists).

We also had some fun last night, as North Central is celebrating National Championship Week this week. Last night at halftime, the school honored its newest national champions:

Here’s the full halftime ceremony for @football_ncc from tonight. This was fun. #WeAreNC pic.twitter.com/HcebuROMrz

— Lucas Mitzel (@northsider89) January 9, 2020

There will be more honorees on Saturday, as we celebrate the women's triathlon team's three-peat. That will take place at halftime of the game against Carroll. The Pioneers are 2-3 in the CCIW, but two of their three losses have required extra time, and one of those two they lost on a 35-40 foot Derek Dotlich heave at the buzzer this past Saturday. They've been a tough out for much of the conference, North Central included, so it should be a fun one as the Cardinals defend The Belt^TM.