Tuesday, February 11, 2020

Game Notes: (MBK) Elmhurst College @ North Central College (2/8/20)

Final Score
NCC 56, Elmhurst 45

Game Summary
Celebrating one of the best senior classes I can remember, the Cardinals (17-4, 10-2) took the early lead in this one, but for the first few minutes couldn't grab firm control as the Blue Jays (18-4, 9-4) were able to play decent defense and keep it close. The Blue Jays split a pair of free throws with 11:15 to go in the half to cut their deficit to one... and then the bottom fell out. The Blue Jays went ice cold and the Cardinals embarked on a nine minute 20-0 run capped by an alley oop and a three that rolled around the rim three or four times before finally falling, forcing Elmhurst's John Baines to burn three timeouts over the span in an effort to stop the bleeding. But the Cardinals even got revenge for last year, hitting a 30 foot runner at the halftime buzzer to take a commanding 34-15 advantage into the break. The Cardinals would lead by as many as 21, but the Blue Jays began to battle back in the second half, trimming the deficit to single digits with about eight minutes to play. But they would get no closer than eight as the Cardinals completed the season sweep.

Key Players
  • Matt Cappelletti (NCC): 5-13 FG (3-7 3PT), 3-4 FT; 16 pts, 11 reb (2 off), 1 ast. Senior Night was Cap's night to shine. He's struggled from deep for a chunk of this year, and did for a bit early in this one, but eventually the lid came off the bucket and he started to take over, hitting two of his threes during that decisive run, including the rollaround one that capped the proceedings. His assist came on a beautiful alley oop to Blaise Meredith that brought down the house.
  • Jake Rhode (ELM): 4-15 FG (3-7 3PT), 4-4 FT; 15 pts, 7 reb (1 off), 3 ast. Normally after a win I'd highlight more North Central guys, but by picking a couple Elmhurst players, I am. Rhode was a preseason All-American and will almost certainly be a unanimous First Team All-CCIW guy. But Saturday was not his Magnum Opus. With Aiden Chang or Blaise Meredith firmly in his face most of the night, Rhode was held below his season average of 21 points a game on a very inefficient shooting night. 10 of his 15 points came after halftime when the Blue Jays made some adjustments, but shooting 27 percent from the floor isn't going to get it done. But if you think his night was bad...
  • Derek Dotlich (ELM): 0-6 FG (0-4 3PT); 0 pts, 2 reb, 1 stl. ...consider what happened to Dotlich on Saturday. He also had to deal with a healthy dose of Blaise Meredith and Aiden Chang... and was completely shut down. He came into Saturday's game averaging 17.5 a night, so that was a big reason why the Cardinals were able to dominate so thoroughly. It probably won't happen again should these two teams meet in the CCIW Tournament, but it's got to be a confidence booster for the Cardinals.
Key Stats
  • NCC: Outscored ELM in the paint 24-12. I had a bit of a hard time picking here, but you do the math. Lavon Thomas had a decent game for the Blue Jays, but Elmhurst also gave up too many easy looks inside at times, which the Cardinals took advantage of.
  • ELM: 4-23 FG 1st half (17.4%). When you have a nine minute scoring drought, your shooting numbers aren't going to look particularly good, but holy hell. Elmhurst is averaging 85 points a game factoring this one in, shooting 47 percent from the floor as a team. The Cardinals just held them to around half of their season scoring output on much worse shooting than average. The second half brought progression to the mean, but this half was a big reason why the Blue Jays lost.
CCIW Scoreboard/The BeltTM Watch
  • AUG 78 (16-6, 10-3), @ IWU 64 (14-7, 8-4)
    • Augustana gains possession of The BeltTM
  • WHE 88 (13-8, 7-5), @ NPU 69 (4-18, 2-11)
    • North Park eliminated from CCIW Tournament
  • CAR 68 (14-7, 6-6), @ MIL 63 (4-18, 1-12)
    • Millikin eliminated from CCIW Tournament
  • BYE- CRL (10-11, 3-9)
  • WBK: ELM 65 (8-14, 3-10), @ NCC 56 (9-12, 5-7)
  • WBK: WHE 58 (16-6, 9-4), @ NPU 54 (17-5, 10-3)
    • North Park clinches a CCIW Quarterfinal home game with AUG, NCC losses
  • WBK: @ IWU 83 (15-6, 9-3), AUG 57 (11-11, 6-7)
  • WBK: CAR 58 (10-11, 5-7), @ MIL 49 (13-8, 6-6)
  • WBK: CRL 70 (8-13, 3-9) @ Marian 30
Final Thoughts
This was a huge win for the Cardinals, not only because it was Senior Night, but also because of how it happened. I've never seen a more dominant half than the first half of this game, other than maybe the day Alex Sorenson destroyed Robert Morris. This win also gave them the season sweep of the Blue Jays, which means North Central owns the tiebreaker over not only them, but likely all other contenders for the CCIW crown. They may end up needing it.

North Central travels to Rock Island on Wednesday for a battle for The BeltTM and first place in the CCIW... in a game that may decide where the conference tournament is being held. A Cardinal win puts them at least two up in the loss column on everyone with three to play, all but guaranteeing that there will be basketball in Gregory Arena the final weekend of February. A Vikings win would put Augustana in first place by half a game, with a one game lead in the win column, but the Cardinals would have a game in hand. That said, the Vikings' remaining schedule (vs Carthage, bye, vs North Park) seems easier than North Central's (at Carroll, vs Carthage, at Wheaton), so this makes the rematch a critical one.

This is all without getting into the fun side of Division III basketball... the regional rankings. The first set come out on Wednesday, February 12th, and I'll go in depth on what they are, what they mean, and what the postseason picture looks like for the Cardinals.
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