Game Notes: (MBK) North Park University @ North Central College (2/1/20)

Final Score
NCC 90, NPU 66

Game Summary
After losing The Belt^TM on Wednesday night, the Cardinals (16--4, 9-2) opened with a dunk on a wide open drive to the hoop, sparking a 9-0 run to open the game. The Vikings (4-16, 2-9) finally got on the board just over three minutes into the contest, but it was pretty much over shortly after that as the Cardinals got out to a 20-4 lead not even six minutes in. North Park tried to make it interesting, pulling back within single digits about halfway through the first half, but the Cardinals pushed the lead back out, never leading by less than 11, and hit a three at the buzzer to take a 51-30 lead into the locker room. In the second half, the Vikings never managed to get closer than within 16, while the Cardinals pushed the lead past 30 with about ten and a half minutes to play, and for the second straight home game, Todd Raridon was able to call off the dogs in the final few minutes. With the win, the Cardinals clinch a berth in the CCIW Tournament.

Key Players

• Matt Cappelletti (NCC): 10-14 FG (1-3 3PT); 21 pts, 2 reb, 3 ast, 1 blk, 1 stl. This was Cap's second-best scoring output of the season (the Greenville game was his top outing), and the first play was a microcosm of the game. Cap went to the point to catch a pass and managed to avoid North Park's Matt Szuba, who gambled for a steal and overpursued. That left the lane completely wide open, as all of Szuba's teammates were paying attention to their assignments, leaving Cap no opposition for that dunk to open the festivities. He got a ton of layups in this one, and while he's struggled from three this season (only 27.5%), he's still averaging double figures as a key piece for this team.
• Connor Raridon (NCC): 6-8 FG (0-1 3PT), 2-2 FT; 16 pts, 10 reb (4 off), 7 ast, 1 stl. Another day at the office, but with a double-double. Amazingly, this is only Connor's second of the season, but it's the 24th of his career. He's been scoring when he's needed to, but for the most part has been the facilitator. For the season, he's put up a 15.3/7.4/5.6 line on 53/36/84 splits, which are really good (6th in scoring, 5th in rebounding, tops in assists, tops in field goal percentage, would be in the top 20 in three point percentage if he qualified, and fourth in free throw percentage in the CCIW). It's a two-man race for the Fred Young Most Outstanding Player award in the CCIW: Raridon, and Elmhurst's Jake Rhode.
• Izaiah Sanders (NPU): 5-10 FG (2-2 3PT), 3-3 FT; 15 pts, 6 reb (1 off), 2 ast, 2 stl. The Vikings have been pretty bad the past couple years, but they have some intriguing pieces going forward, and the junior guard is one of them. This is a pretty good line, and appears to be Sanders' best game of this campaign so far. If the Vikings can get some good complementary pieces this offseason, they can get out of the CCIW basement.

Key Stats

• NCC: 21-30 FG in 1st half (70.0%). I don't think I've ever seen a more efficient half of basketball than the first half of this one against an overmatched Vikings squad. This included a 6-10 clip from beyond the arc (60%). Breaking down some of these 51 points, 24 came in the paint, 14 came off ten Viking turnovers, seven came off second chances, and five came on the fast break. That's a good half. They came back down to earth in the second (13-27 for a 48.2% clip), but that's to be expected, and is still a great shooting day.
• NPU: 16 turnovers. It was kind of hard to pinpoint one thing. The Vikings shot pretty well (50% from the field, 33% from deep, but only 59% from the line), but they pretty much shot themselves in the foot early on. As mentioned above, ten of those 16 turnovers came in that decisive first half, and the Cardinals scored 21 points off those opportunities. North Park, for its part, did force 11 turnovers, including seven steals, to help mitigate this, but surrendering a shooting day like they did while not taking care of the ball doesn't help.

CCIW Scoreboard/The Belt^TM Watch
With Illinois Wesleyan taking possession of The Belt^TM on Wednesday down in Bloomington, this added feature returns to this section until we have another game at Merner for It^TM.

• @ ELM 80 (18-2, 9-2), WHE 69 (12-7, 6-4)
• Elmhurst clinches a CCIW Tournament berth
• @ IWU 88 (13-6, 7-3), CRL 44 (9-11, 2-9)
• Illinois Wesleyan retains possession of The Belt^TM
• @ AUG 76 (14-6, 8-3), MIL 55 (4-16, 1-10)
• Augustana clinches a CCIW Tournament berth
• Bye- CAR (12-7, 4-6)
• WBK: @ NCC 63 (9-10, 5-5), NPU 59 (16-4, 9-2)
• WBK: @ IWU 73 (13-6, 7-3), CRL 57 (7-12, 3-8)
• WBK: WHE 63 (15-5, 8-3), @ ELM 60 (7-13, 2-9)
• WBK: MIL 66 (13-7, 6-5), @ AUG 60 (10-10, 5-6) (OT)
• WBK: Bye- CAR (8-11, 3-7)

Final Thoughts

I think pretty much everyone had the expectation that this was going to be an easy win for the Cardinals... but not even I expected it would have started like this. Cap's game-opening dunk really set the tone, and with the Cardinals jumping out to an 18-2 lead, there was little drama on Saturday. It was nice once again to see the end of bench guys get in, and part of me now wants Barak Diehl to get a little more regular playing time, because dude can shoot. I know it won't happen, but it's fun.

With Elmhurst winning to keep pace, we continue with that two-way tie atop the CCIW. It will be broken one way or another this week, as the Cardinals have their second bye on Wednesday (Elmhurst hosts Carthage), and then this coming Saturday we have arguably the biggest game of the season as the Blue Jays come to Gregory Arena. This game won't decide the fate of the conference, but I think whoever wins will likely get one of the two byes. And for the Cardinals, if they win that game against Elmhurst, it will guarantee North Central the tiebreaker due to a head-to-head sweep thanks to their come-from-behind victory at Faganel Hall way back in December, which will probably put the Cardinals in the driver's seat for the conference title.

Saturday we also celebrate Senior Night, as we send off one of the most successful senior classes in program history. Four straight NCAA Tournament appearances (at least for two of the seniors involved as they're fifth-year seniors), two CCIW Tournament championships, and a ton of fun memories highlight their careers, and it'll be a bittersweet celebration of the four guys we'll honor.