Game Notes: (MBK) Carthage College @ North Central College (12/4/21)

Final Score
NCC 91, Carthage 59

Game Summary
Looking at the final score, you might be surprised that it was the Firebirds (4-3, 0-2) that got off to a hot start, getting an easy layup followed by back to back threes on their first three possessions for an 8-0 lead just two minutes in, forcing a pissed off Todd Raridon to call timeout. Whatever he said worked though, as the Cardinals (4-1, 1-0) responded with a 13-3 run that forced Steve Djurikovic to take one for Carthage. The Firebirds tied it out of the timeout, but a 7-0 Cardinal run gave them control once again, and while Carthage stayed close for a while, the Cardinals slowly pulled away, taking a ten point halftime lead, then survived the early Firebird push that cut it to six, and other than a brief moment where they cut it back to nine a couple minutes later, the Cardinals led by double digits the rest of the way, pushing the margin to 20 with seven and a half to play, and the end of the bench got it over 30 in the final couple minutes.

Key Players

• Matt Helwig (NCC): 10-18 FG (4-5 3PT), 7-7 FT; 31 pts, 9 reb (1 off), 7 ast, 1 stl. Matt Helwig is making an early case for First Team All-CCIW. He's had some huge games out of the gate for the Cardinals, and was huge for them here. He scored NCC's first seven points and 10 of the first 13 to get the Cardinals back into it, then poured it on as the game continued. Adding in all the rebounds and assists (including a couple really nice ones) was the icing on the cake.
• Ethan Helwig (NCC): 9-16 FG (3-5 3PT), 4-6 FT; 25 pts, 3 reb, 1 ast. Ethan had the other three of those first 13 points, but stayed involved throughout the rest of this one, hitting from both outside and inside. While he didn't contribute as much to the box score as Matt did, this has probably been Ethan's best game of his young NCC career.
• Fillip Bulatovic (CAR): 7-18 FG (0-4 3PT), 5-13 FT; 19 pts, 8 reb (2 off), 4 ast, 1 blk, 1 stl. Bulatovic is one of the best players in the CCIW, and has played some great games at Merner Fieldhouse. This wasn't a bad one... but it wasn't great, either. He had a rough night at the line, and shot okay, though NCC defended him pretty well throughout. He's going to get his, but the Cardinals made him work for it. Bulatovic also got T'd up in this one... more on that later.

Key Stats

• NCC: 12-19 3PT (63.2%). My vocal cords got a workout tonight. They really got this going after that first timeout when Matt Helwig buried a three and got fouled for a four point play to literally cut the Carthage lead in half... something that's really hard to do with an eight point lead. Ethan had a good night as well, Shea hit a few big ones, Blaise got one before Todd Raridon called off the dogs, and Human Victory Cigar Barak Diehl hit a couple in garbage time to push the final margin over 30.
• CAR: 9-20 FT (45.0%). I feel like it's cheating to go with threes for both teams, and there's not a lot else to look at when you lose by 32, so we'll go with a stat that has to be somewhat alarming for the Firebirds. As noted above, a lot of these misses were by Bulatovic. He missed his first two tries of the game, prompting a joking "Time to try the Hack-a-Fillip" from the official scorer, but it's weird how on the money he was. This is something the Firebirds will need to clean up if they want to compete in the CCIW this year.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• @ MIL 70 (5-3, 1-0), AUG 45 (4-4, 0-1)
• @ ELM 76 (7-1, 1-0), WHE 75 (7-1, 1-1)
• Jake Rhode hit a halfcourt shot at the buzzer
• @ IWU 63, (7-0, 1-0), CRL 44 (3-4, 0-1)
• Illinois Wesleyan retains possession of The Belt^TM
• Eastern Illinois 76, NPU 71 (3-2, 0-0)
• Game does not count toward's NPU's record

Final Thoughts

This was, admittedly, kind of a weird game even beyond those dueling scoring runs in the first couple of minutes. Both teams ended up getting flop warnings (NCC had one by I think Ethan Helwig late in the first half after a three attempt, Carthage got one trying to draw a charge), and after the Carthage one there was a brief stoppage of play. Things got weirder later when Fillip Bulatovic got fouled on a shot attempt, and immediately afterwards, Carthage's Nemi Ostojic got a technical foul, though I didn't see for what. This resulted in Bulatovic getting to shoot his free throws with no one in the lane, followed by Matt Helwig taking technical free throws for the Cardinals. Then with the Cardinals up 18 following a pretty Ethan Helwig layup, he ran into Bulatovic coming back down, Bulatovic pushed him, and I feel like Helwig embellished it a little bit, but he got away with it, drawing a technical foul on Bulatovic and two more Matt Helwig free throws.

All of this occurred with former Carthage head coach and current assistant Bosko Djurikovic watching from well behind us. We didn't even know he was there until we heard his familiar bellowing from behind us. It was good to see him back at a CCIW basketball game though.

The Cardinals will have a few days to get ready to get back to work with a tough one on the docket as they head north to go take on UW-Oshkosh for the first time since... well, you remember.