Game Notes: (MBK) Illinois Wesleyan University @ North Central College (12/15/21)

Final Score
IWU 73, NCC 48

Game Summary
The Cardinals (4-3, 1-1) opened the game with back to back threes and had me optimistic about the proceedings. But the Titans (8-1, 2-1) fought back and for a brief moment it seemed like we'd have a nice back and forth on our hands. The Cardinals scored to go up 12-9 with 13:35 to go in the first half. And then it all went to hell, as North Central went without a basket for ten minutes as the Titans scored 25 unanswered points. A late Cardinal surge cut it to 36-20 Titans by halftime, and a decent early push in the second half got it to 39-26 IWU. But the Titans slowly built the lead back up and the Cardinals would get no closer.

Key Players

• Peter Lambesis (IWU): 6-8 FG (0-2 3PT), 3-3 FT; 15 pts, 4 reb, 7 ast, 2 stl. Hard to pick just one or two guys given the good balance this Titan team had, but Lambesis led all scorers in this one and got his teammates involved. A good performance.
• Cory Noe (IWU): 4-7 FG (all 3PT); 12 pts, 1 reb, 1 blk. I could have gone with Luke Yoder (13 pts) or Matt Leritz (11-7), but Noe hit a few big threes for this Titans team that really got the Titan fans in the building going. Again, sheer balance.
• Blaise Meredith (NCC): 4-9 FG (1-5 3PT), 1-3 FT; 10 pts, 7 reb, 1 stl. Not a lot of good picks for the Cardinals tonight. Blaise hit a three on the opening possession and seemed poised for a good night, but he struggled the rest of the way on offense. He got his rebounds and tied for the game-high there, but that was about it.

Key Stats

• NCC: 17-52 FG (32.7%). That includes a 4-23 mark from three (17.4%). The Cardinals missed 15 in a row during that almost ten minute drought. And that was pretty much the ballgame.
• IWU: 27 points off 16 NCC turnovers. That's an impressive number. There were a few fast break opportunities for the Titans, but they also took advantage of dead ball turnovers as well. North Central, for its part, forced 16 turnovers as well, but only got nine points off them.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• WBK: @ IWU 74 (5-4, 3-0), NCC 59 (4-6, 1-1)

Final Thoughts
I'm just gonna leave this here.

https://t.co/uJ4IOeKSrr pic.twitter.com/siiXBJoQ0J

— Lucas Mitzel🎙 (@northsider89) December 16, 2021

There wasn't much to get excited about as a Cardinal fan. This Titan team came in ranked fourth in the country, and showed they deserve that ranking. This was a butt kicking.

The Cardinals are off on the road now for a while, with a game at Millikin on Saturday, a swing through Michigan to hopefully right the ship, then a couple games in Orlando before gettting back into the gauntlet. They'll need to be ready on this trip, because they need to get right with some tough games on the docket.