2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 22

And so for several teams, it all comes down to this.

Just 40 games remain in the group stage of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions. For eight teams, their group stage is over; three of them are done for the tournament, while the other five have all locked up spots in the Elimination Stage. For 80 other teams, this round is their last change to either make the dance, affect their seeding, or for some, just play for some level of pride.

Of the 40 games left on the docket, only two are completely meaningless for the postseason. The remaining 38, at a minimum, are for positioning within groups, which could determine who gets home court advantage in the first round of the Elimination Stage. We also have two games between contenders for a 2nd seed, which would guarantee home court in the first two rounds. This accounts for half of the games this round.

By my count, we have 11 teams fighting for the final six spots in the tournament to be determined in this set. Nine games will determine those outcomes, including one win-or-go-home game. Meanwhile, only three of the eight groups have had their championships clinched; ten games will determine the fate of the other five, including one straight up title game. These include one game of overlap, so 18 of the 40 games have huge implications.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 1

We interrupt your NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions... to bring you the longest running feature on Confessions of a Sportscaster.

The first full fall after I'd started COAS, I'd had the idea of picking NFL games against the spread. After a couple seasons of a partnership for that, I went somewhat solo in that every pick appears here, but it's never been something I've wanted to do alone. And so for the 14th season, I'll be picking games with a coalition.

Returning once again are good friends Adam Quinn and Joe Klecka. Adam won the column last year by a fairly narrow margin, ending my run of Even Year Magic. Just four games separated the three of us in total, and we all finished above .500. I can't complain.

So as we've done in years past, after ESPN announces its initial lines on Tuesday afternoons, the three of us will make our picks independently. Adam and I will provide a rationale, whether it be based on on-field observations, statistics, hatred of throwback uniforms, or the moon (no, really).

In addition to the three of us, we are once again joined by 2024 group champion and my co-host from Then There Were Two: A History of the World Series Geoffrey Clark, along with Joe's uncle Jim. My son Matthew opted out for this season despite having a pretty good 2024.

As we get back to it, Joe disagrees with Adam and I on seven games apiece, while Adam and I dispute six out of the first 16. Let's get back to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 21

As the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions nears the conclusion of this stage, eight teams will close out their 20 game slate. Many of them are either already advancing, though some are still fighting for some of the final spots in the bracket.

Another eight teams clinched berths in the Elimination Stage, leaving just 18 spots left to be claimed with two rounds left to go. 29 teams are still fighting for those spots, so for 11 squads these next two rounds will be the end of the line.

No group championships have been clinched yet, but a number of them will officially be up for grabs in this round, including a couple de-facto title games on the docket this go-around.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 20

Time is running out as the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions rolls on!

Just three rounds remain, but a lot still remains to be determined at this stage. Only five more teams clinched berths in the Elimination Stage in the last round, but that leaves 26 spots open. 39 teams are still mathematically alive for those spots, though some of those doors are likely to be closing over the next few days.

Meanwhile, group championships are all still up for grabs at this point. One or two might get clinched in this batch of games, but others will probably come down to the final round.

We continue to have several instant classics as the tournament rolls on; this last round alone saw four games go to overtime, and we continue to have dramatic finishes aplenty as we come to our final 120 games of this stage of the tournament.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 19

Four rounds remain, and time is running out for teams to either punch their ticket or get their best possible seeding for the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

Eight more spots got locked up in the last round, so with that the field is just over half filled. Seedings, however, are very much still up for grabs as the gap between the top two teams in each group ranges from as many as two games to a dead heat in a couple (though one is already settled via head to head tiebreaker).

On the other end of the spectrum, just five teams have been eliminated from postseason contention, so even some folks at the bottom still have a shot to sneak into the Elimination Stage over these final four sets of games, though a lot of them will need help to get there.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 18

Tickets are getting punched left and right as we come into the home stretch of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

Last round saw 12 different teams clinch a berth in the next stage of the tournament, meaning 25 of the 64 spots have been claimed with five rounds of games left to go. Meanwhile, only a few teams have been eliminated from contention. That number will likely increase as well with so few contests left to make up that ground.

As we move into this next round, we'll see how many of the 39 remaining spots in the postseason get taken. Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 17

Just a few rounds remain as we hit the three-quarter pole in group play of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

Five more teams clinched berths in the Elimination Stage in the last round, leaving 51 spots still up for grabs. At present, most teams are still mathematically alive, though some of them will likely face elimination in this upcoming round and more spots are on the verge of being claimed.

We had a handful of triple-doubles in the previous set of games, and while no games went to overtime, we had a few photo finishes again as well, as well as a stunning collapse in one game. We'll see what kind of drama and phenomenal performances are on tap for us this time.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 16

The postseason picture is starting to take shape as the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions rolls on!

With seven rounds of games left to play, 56 of the 64 spots in the Elimination Stage remain up for grabs. Most groups still have seven spots left, with one group still having all spots open while another only has six. A lot of these groups are looking like they're going to come down to the final round, given that no one has yet been eliminated from contention, though some teams face that danger as we approach the next round. The positive for those teams in the last round was that several teams still looking for that elusive first win finally broke through, and now just two winless teams remain.

More spots in the Elimination Stage are up for grabs as we get set for our next batch of 40 games, and we hope to have more compelling games as we continue.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 15

The races are tight as we get closer to the end of group play in the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

Several games in the last batch went down to the final possession, including a couple last-second makes that turned the result upside-down.

Most groups have more or less settled into a general pecking order. At present, 11 wins is the threshold to win your group, and many of those teams are on the verge of locking up their spots in the knockout stage, if they haven't already like the 2020 Lakers. Most groups have a team or two that aren't mathematically eliminated but would need an absolute miracle to make their way in, and many of those will likely have their last spots come down to the final round.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 14

The tournament continues as we seek to find the greatest basketball team of all time!

We had some more thrilling games in the last round, including our last unbeaten team taking its first loss, so no one will run the table. At this point the goal still is to at least make the knockout stage, which still has all 64 of its spots up for grabs and no teams mathematically eliminated quite yet. On the other side, we still have four winless teams, though they all still have time to get in the win column for the first time.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 13

We continue our second round of round robin play as the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions rolls on!

We had some phenomenal individual performances in the last round, including a near quadruple-double as well as quintuple-nickel. No buzzer beaters or overtime games in the last round, but we did still have some games come down to the final possession.

Perhaps the most notable result was one of our two remaining undefeated teams suffer their first loss of the tournament. At this point, the only team with an unblemished record is the 1996 Chicago Bulls, though they were on their second bye in the past round.

We're going to start keeping an eye on the standings a little more heavily as the next few rounds get going, as the top teams will start punching their tickets to the knockout stage. We will probably still see spots up for grabs as late as the final round though.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 12

The second half of group play is about to get underway as we continue the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

At the halfway mark, a minimum record of 8-2 is what's required to win a group, but there are several 8-2 teams that are either tied at the top of trail someone who had an even better first half. Two undefeated teams still remain through a single round robin. Meanwhile down towards the bottom, there is a little bit of an imbalance among the groups. As a general rule, 4-6 halfway through would be good enough to advance to the postseason, but in some groups you would need five wins, and if the tournament ended today, two 4-6 teams would be knocked out while some teams at 3-7 are on the right side of the bubble. Based on this I'd anticipate needing eight wins total to advance, maybe seven depending on the group.

We're still waiting for some tournament-firsts; we've had several overtime games and buzzer beaters, as well as some 50 point outbursts, triple-doubles, and an early quadruple-nickel, but no quintuple-nickels (though we've come close). We'll see with another set of 440 games if any more of these outstanding performances come into play.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 11

Let's finish up this first half of round robin play.

Eight of our 88 teams have already played everyone in their groups to this point. The remaining 80 will all play their tenth game in this round.

The hype surrounding the last round of games truly did not disappoint. Five games went to overtime, including our most hyped one, with a sixth game being decided in the final second of regulation.

The pace we're currently looking at, an 8-12 record looks like it will be enough to guarantee an advance into the next round, with six or seven wins maybe being enough. We are in fact down to just two undefeated teams left, though whether they will be able to knock off their one unfaced opponent then proceed to repeat their feat remains to be seen. We'll see how tight the races at the top to avoid facing other group champions until the quarterfinals goes across the field.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 10

This may be one of the most anticipated rounds as we near the end of the first half of the round robin stage of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions.

Eight teams will play their tenth game this round before getting their bye. The remainder will play their ninth, and with how the schedule was set up, our top eight teams from prior tournaments will now get to measure themselves against some of the more recent NBA champions.

Our undefeated team count is down to three now, with one of those going away as two of them will take the court against each other in this round. The third is on its bye in this set. By contrast, we have just four winless teams to this point.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 9

The tournament rolls on as we continue our quest to find the greatest team of all time!

Attrition continues to take its toll as we are down to just four undefeated teams remaining. We near the time when that will drop to three, as two of the four teams are in the same group. Meanwhile as the elimination stage picture starts to take shape, through eight rounds three wins seems to be enough to advance.

We had some high scoring games in the last round, and that was without any overtimes, though we had a pair of games decided at the buzzer. There have been some phenomenal individual performances that we continue to see, and I'm excited to see what else we have in store as the tournament continues.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 8

We return with another round of games as the 2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions rolls on!

Attrition continues to hit as we are now down to just four unbeaten teams remaining, though at least one will fall as two of those are in the same group and have yet to play each other. Further down the standings lists, at this point a roughly .500 record is easily enough to get you into the elimination stage that is still several rounds away from beginning. The current threshold for getting in is roughly a 2-4 mark, although that does require tiebreaker help. That means teams are going to need to have either head to head wins or a good point differential in order to advance.

Round seven had a couple thrilling overtime games, as well as a game that ended on a late in regulation game-winning shot. Hopefully we continue to have moments like that as we continue.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 7

We continue with our quest to find the greatest team of all time as the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions resumes!

With five or six games in the books for all teams so far, we're starting to get some separation in each of our eight groups. A handful of undefeated teams still remain, but we actually have more winless teams left than we do unbeaten's.

Last round really only saw one instant classic game that went to overtime, though we did have some tightly contested games in amongst the bigger blowouts. Triple-double's continue to pop up from time to time along with a fair number of quadruple-nickels. Still waiting to see some possible records fall, maybe as we continue through we'll see those.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 6

Many of our teams have hit the quarter pole so far in this edition of the Tournament of Champions, and today the remaining teams will hit that mark of group play.

The last round was a phenomenal one, as we had two games go to overtime thanks to game-tying shots at the buzzer (plus a third that would have had that shot go in), while two other games were won on shots in the closing seconds.

At this stage looking at standings, all of our recent champions are playing incredibly well; the worst record among champions since our last Tournament is by the 2019 Raptors, and even they are 3-2 so far. By my count, nine undefeated teams remain in the tournament at this point, while just seven are still in search of their first victory.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 5

For a large chunk of our teams, today marks the quarter pole of this tournament as we enter round five of group play in the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

The number of unbeatens continues to drop as the pecking order starts to take shape. But since this is only the quarter pole or thereabouts, there is still a ton of time for teams that are off to a sluggish start to right the ship.

Most of the tournament to this point has not seen a ton of tight finishes; we've only had two overtime games to date, though one came in this last round on a three at the buzzer; ignore that the overtime period was fairly one-sided. Several phenomenal individual performances continue to be had and we'll continue to track those as the tournament progresses.

As we continue, standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 4

We continue onward with our fourth round of games in the group stage of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

We had a pretty good drop from last round in terms of unbeaten teams; only 19 remain at this point. There are also still a large number of teams still looking for their first win. But this early in the tournament, anything can still happen.

After I mentioned it last time, we ended up almost getting the tournament's first quadruple-double via Wilt Chamberlain, who might be the most likely candidate to pull it off. We'll see if it ends up happening at some point before this is all said and done.

As we prepare for our next 40 game slate, standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 3

With the holiday behind us, we move on to our third round of games in this Tournament of Champions.

We're still very early in this, so for the 33 teams that remain unbeaten to this point, they should not start planning the parade yet, while the 31 without a win to this point should not yet be entering panic mode. After all, 64 of the 88 teams will advance to the next stage and there is plenty of time for everyone to make their case.

This last round of games also saw the tournament's first buzzer beater as well as our first 30-30 game. I'm waiting for the first quadruple-double to drop, as given we've already seen a quintuple-nickel in this tournament nothing else would really surprise me at this point.

As we move into our next round of games, standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 2

One round down, several more to go.

Our first batch of games ran the gamut from a handful of fairly tight contests (though only one that came down to the final possession) to some that saw teams get their doors blown off. In a tournament where point differential matters as a tiebreaker, these tight games will become important.

We also saw some phenomenal individual performances; I highlighted who the simulator marked as the player of the game for each contest. The list was a pretty veritable who's-who of NBA history and included things like a Hakeem Olajuwon quintuple-nickel; Hakeem pulled off a quadruple-nickel in reality, so to see a quintuple-nickel really blew my mind.

The one thing we have not seen yet is any of the top eight teams from this tournament's history take the court yet; the scheduler scheduled pairings by the same tiers in each of the eight pools and that top tier got the first bye. Those teams will all see their first action of the tournament in this set.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 1

Let's start crowing a champion.

In prior iterations of this tournament, I've done a post for every single day. I'm... not going to do that this round. It required a lot of pre-planning and randomizing, and that's not very efficient for running this.

So this time what I will be doing is roughly every three days I'll update with a round of game results. The idea being if this were taking place in reality, each group would play a round once during a three day stretch. Some teams might get rusty and get a full week off, but this should make the load reasonable for all 88 teams. It would also allow for, if this were happening in reality, the logistics of a venue like TD Garden in Boston to run effectively nonstop without overloading folks (though in reality, some of those Celtics teams might do like they historically did and play some games in Hartford or something).

Despite the sheer volume (this stage is going to have 880 total games) I will link box scores from each game on here (hopefully these will stay for the long term, though I am backing up all boxes just in case). Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com.

Without further ado... let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Reveal

The field is filled. Let's set the stage.

Yesterday the final five teams were announced that would be participating along with the 74 NBA and nine ABA champions in this year's tournament. This gives us 88 teams that will be playing, a huge growth from the last time I did this.

The format will nonetheless be the same; there will be eight groups of 11 teams that will be playing double round robins amongst each other, giving each team a total of 20 games to try and prove their worth.

Because of the sheer number of teams, I needed to do my best to balance out the groups. Thankfully, most of these teams have at least one prior sample of games for me to go off of. Years ago, I had built out a formula to score how each team performed in each of the tournaments, and from there I found the average score. Obviously a team that made a deeper run in a single tournament would get a little more weight than a team that has struggled through all three appearances, so it's not perfect, but it's better than a randomly assigned bracket like I used in 2013 that included a first round matchup between the 1992 Bulls and 2013 Heat.

There are 74 teams that have participated in one of these tournaments before, allowing for them to have a baseline score. 72 of those 74 teams are organized into nine different tiers, with each group getting one team from each tier in the name of competitive balance, but also to keep the very best teams from having to play each other too early.

The two teams not in that list are the 1953 and 1954 Minneapolis Lakers; two iterations of the franchise that have won a combined three games across three tournaments, easily the fewest among tournament teams. Those two Laker teams will join the 2020 Lakers and the five non-champion entrants who made it via the play in round into one tier that will be distributed across all groups, with every other NBA champion between 2017 and 2025 into another tier, giving us 11.

All tiers will have their teams randomly assigned to groups, with the exception of that '53/'54 Laker tier. By virtue of winning at least one previous Tournament of Champions, whichever group contains the 1996 Bulls and 1985 Lakers will get one of those two Minneapolis Laker iterations in their group, with the remaining six teams distributed among the remaining groups. The 2020 Lakers are in this tier not through any fault of their own; due to the circumstances of their playoff run this seemed like the fairest team to take out of the tier of other NBA champions to be crowned since the last time I ran this tournament.

A couple caveats for the group assignments: due to the sheer number of titles won by a couple teams (looking at you, Lakers and Celtics), there is no limit to the number of representatives from a single franchise in each group other than how tiers are set up. The only override that will be done is if any of our five play-in teams would get paired up with the team that beat them in that year's Finals (e.g. the 1993 Suns and 1993 Bulls cannot be placed in the same group).

Without further ado, here are the draws for the 2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions Group Play.

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Play In Round

Let's get this tournament started.

As mentioned in the introductory post, we have 83 championship teams that are already into the field. Because this is not an even number, we need to get the field to a nice round number. Rather than pre-eliminating anyone, we're going to find a nice, round number of teams to add to get us to where we can group teams up.

20 of the 30 NBA franchises have won a championship, though I use an asterisk here to knock it down to 19 as the 1951 Rochester Royals are not on WhatIfSports, which knocks the Sacramento Kings' lone title off the board.

This gives me 11 teams for five spots. The Kings, since that 1951 title in Rochester, have not even made it back to the NBA Finals. Other franchises that have not had the fortune of making it to basketball's biggest stage are the Charlotte Hornets, Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves, and New Orleans Pelicans. Conveniently, that leaves us with five teams for five spots: the Brooklyn Nets, Indiana Pacers, Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns, and Utah Jazz.

Also conveniently, all of these teams have made multiple trips to the Finals without a ring. So to help determine which iteration of each franchise would earn the invite, we will do a play in round.

The franchises with two appearances will play a home-and-home, with aggregate scoring determining the winner. Now because the Phoenix Suns have three Finals appearances, they have some extra legwork that goes in with each team playing four games, so if there's a tie, head to head, then point differential, will be the tiebreakers.

All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's play!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Introduction

I wasn't sure I'd ever get back to this. My daily workload became too much and I didn't have the bandwidth to start up a massive project like this again.

But with the 2025 NBA season now complete, and bandwidth seemingly in a better place... let's give this another whirl.

I've done a project like this a few times before. Back in 2013 I went as far back as the first NBA Championship (with some caveats due to team availability) and did a single elimination tournament to try and determine the best NBA team of all time. Not surprisingly, and much to my delight, the 1996 Chicago Bulls ran roughshod over their competition en route to the title. Two years later I revised the tournament to include group play and actually have all teams that were available. With a little bit more of a battle, the 1996 Bulls once again came out on top. A year later, I decided to add in ABA champions to the list, with a different result as the 1985 Los Angeles Lakers were the ones who took home the hardware.

So I've been sitting on this for several years now. The original plan was to do another one of these in 2022; that would give me an even number of teams to build a tournament similar to what I did in 2016. That was in the height of my "I don't have bandwidth" era though, but I've nonetheless kept this filed away, waiting for an opportunity to use it. Now in 2025, I finally do, though I had to make some adjustments to keep the field at an even number.

My usual simulator, WhatIfSports, has teams going as far back as 1952. That gives me the last 74 NBA champions. The ABA is also on the simulator, which gives me their nine champions for a total of 83 teams. From here, there are five franchises that have made at least one (incidentally, all have made at least two) NBA Finals but have not won an NBA championship. That's 88, a nice divisible number that allows for a format similar to what we've used.

Like we did in 2015 and 2016, I will set up eight pools of teams. In this case, each pool will have 11 teams. This will allow for a double round robin of each team playing 20 games, a little bit bigger of a sample size compared to the last time I did this. The top eight teams will advance to the usual elimination stage, which means double the number from prior years with 64 teams. I'll have a pre-seeding stage prior to this round to try and balance the bracket out, but I'll have more on that when we get to that stage.

Prior to the tournament starting, I will have a preliminary round to determine the last five teams in, and from there I'll unveil the groups for pool play.

Looking forward to getting back into this grind!

Game Notes: (WBK) Illinois Wesleyan University @ North Central College (2/19/25)

Final Score
IWU 79, NCC 55

Game Summary
Things were okay for the first couple minutes. The Cardinals (10-14, 6-9) were able to get across half court against a pressure defense and get a couple baskets while keeping the Titans (23-1, 14-1) into mostly halfcourt sets. A Cardinal layup cut it to 7-6 with 6:14 remaining in the first quarter. And then the wheels fell off. Titan pressure began forcing turnovers, and the Titans capitalized to the tune of a 23-0 run, with the Cardinals only managing a free throw to ultimately kill that run. Illinois Wesleyan pushed the lead as high as 31 in the second quarter, but the Cardinals cut it to 27 by halftime. NCC cut it to 21 quickly out of the second half gate, but a Mia Smith timeout stopped the bleeding and the Titans pushed the lead back up. The Titans' largest lead of the game came at the end of the third at 73-36, and Smith called off the dogs with about six minutes to go. The Cardinals' reserves managed to get the deficit back down to 20, prompting an angry Smith to use her final timeout with about two minutes to play before the Titans added a couple last baskets to close out the scoring.

Key Players

• Sawyer White (IWU): 6-9 FG (2-4 3PT), 1-1 FT; 15 pts, 5 reb, 1 ast, 7 stl. Take your pick; this is an incredibly balanced Titan team, so we'll highlight their defensive master and the game's leading scorer. White picked off numerous ill-advised Cardinal passes, tying her season high in steals (done two other times this year) and is up to 78 on the year in 24 games. She's still 34 shy of her own single season program record in that category, but if my math is right, her final steal in this game moved her into second for a career in program history; Rebekah Ehresman's mark of 296 will be shattered probably by January of 2026.
• Lauren Huber (IWU): 5-12 FG, 2-2 FT; 12 pts, 11 reb (8 off), 2 ast, 3 stl. With five Titans in double figures, the other player to focus on has to be Huber. I saw the double-double and figured this was a no brainer, but the other number that jumped out was the eight offensive rebounds. I knew the Titans had gotten quite a few, but I didn't remember Huber specifically getting that many. Not the best shooting night, but she contributed in other ways as well.
• Biz Daly (NCC): 6-10 FG, 2-3 FT; 14 pts, 3 reb (1 off), 2 ast, 3 blk, 2 stl. Daly probably had the best night out of anybody. She was able to get a few wide open looks for easy layups, though after the outcome was pretty much decided. The rebounding numbers leave a little to be desired, but she filled the stat sheet enough elsewhere. It's been a good sophomore campaign for Daly, and I hope she can continue to develop into a serious All-CCIW caliber player.

Key Stats

• NCC: 28 turnovers. Look, it starts and ends here. Nine of the 28 came in the final six or so minutes of the first quarter after Megan McClure's layup made it a 7-6 ball game, including a couple stretches of three straight giveaways. As you'd expect, those 28 turnovers turned into 46 Titan points. For comparison, the Titans did commit 20 turnovers of their own, but the Cardinals only turned those mistakes into 14 points.
• IWU: Outrebounded NCC 39-28. I probably could have gone a couple different ways here, but this was another thing that jumped out to me during the contest. The Titans ended up with 14 offensive rebounds in the contest (including the aforementioned eight by Huber). Ultimately this didn't end up harming the Cardinals too badly, as they only gave up 12 second chance points, but it kept the ball in Titan hands and didn't allow the Cardinals to try to cut into the deficit.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• @ ELM 75 (15-8, 7-8), CAR 67 (16-8, 8-7)
• @ WHE 64 (13-11, 8-7), MIL 53 (8-16, 7-8)
• WHE clinches a CCIW Tournament berth
• CRL 97 (17-7, 12-3), @ NPU 51 (3-22, 0-16)
• BYE: AUG (10-14, 6-9)
• MBK: NCC 80 (14-10, 7-8), @ CRL 76 (8-16, 4-11)
• NCC clinches a CCIW Tournament berth

Final Thoughts

I came into the game with tempered expectations; the Cardinals had lost to the Titans down at the Shirk Center a little over a month before, but the margin was single digits. I figured the Cardinals could give the Titans a game. That was true for about four minutes, and then the Titans showed why they're one of the best teams in the country. This is a team with legitimate national title aspirations, and if they play the way they did on Wednesday, they can beat absolutely anyone.

Meanwhile for the Cardinals, Wednesday was about the worst case scenario we could have seen. While the loss wasn't unexpected, it was what happened elsewhere that poses a problem. Elmhurst's victory puts the Blue Jays in the drivers' seat for a tournament bid, and Millikin has a head to head sweep over the Cardinals that would get the Big Blue in ahead of them. Needless to say, Saturday is win-or-go-home for the Cardinals, but they need a ton of help, in particular from Illinois Wesleyan and Carroll (and possibly from Carthage depending on exactly how three-way tiebreakers play out), to play a 26th game.

All told, it's been somewhat of a disappointing season for North Central. They started fairly strong, but lost some games they probably shouldn't have over the course of the season. Nonetheless, there's still some good pieces in place, and Maggie McCloskey-Bax has done a good job reloading talent. This group will be in the mix again next year. But for now, my eyes shift to Wheaton on Saturday and hope for an extended season.

Game Notes: (MBK) North Park University @ North Central College (2/8/25)

Final Score
NCC 86, NPU 81

Game Summary
Taking on its second top-three conference opponent in as many games, the Cardinals (13-9, 6-7) traded baskets early with the Vikings (14-8, 9-4), who led 25-23 with just under eight minutes to play in the first half. The Cardinals finally took control with an 11-0 run, and closed the half on an 8-0 run, those as part of a larger 27-6 Cardinal run that led to a 48-31 NCC lead going into the locker room. After allowing the first two points of the second half to go down 19, the Vikings began to claw their way back in, cutting the deficit down to single digits about six minutes into the frame. The Cardinals did just enough to stay in front until the Vikings were finally able to draw back even at 77 with under four minutes to play. The Cardinals responded with a pair of free throws on the ensuing possession, and did just enough the rest of the way to hang on for their second consecutive huge home win.

Key Players

• Drew Gaston (NCC): 9-13 FG (3-4 3PT), 4-4 FT; 25 pts, 3 reb (1 off), 1 ast. As seems to always happen, on Senior Night, the seniors find a way to step up and save the day. Just a few days after Gaston hit a couple huge fallaways he was back at it again. In a season where he's struggled from beyond the arc, he had an excellent night from deep, and continued to shine on his baseline fadeaways. But no moment was bigger than out of a Cardinal timeout with 32.3 seconds left and 11 seconds on the shot clock. Gaston took a pass from Terrance Moncrief on the wing, dribbled right, stepped back, and launched a three with the shot clock winding down. Said shot hit the rim, ricocheted off the top of the backboard (somehow avoiding the shot clock, which would have been ruled out of bounds), front rim again, then bounced home off the back iron to serve as the final basket of the game and the eventual dagger. Gaston likely won't win Player of the Week honors given that Wheaton's Soren Richardson dropped 53 on this Viking team on Wednesday and followed that up with 29 more against Carroll Saturday night, but I dare you to find two more cold-blooded daggers than what Gaston came up with this week.
• Justin Sveiteris (NCC): 5-9 FG, 1-2 FT; 11 pts, 6 reb (2 off), 1 blk, 1 stl. Sveiteris has really started to come into his own as the season has progressed. He was needed more so in this game with James Bullock, Jr. out, and once again he shone. His 11 points was tied for second-most on the team with Ethan Helwig, his six rebounds tied the team high, and he played good interior defense, especially given his late foul trouble (he finished the game with four). He may not necessarily win any awards this year, but he has become a solid rotation piece for a CCIW team, and you need those.
• TJ Gardner (NPU): 7-11 FG (0-1 3PT), 5-8 FT; 19 pts, 2 stl. To a degree, I think Gardner's game was a microcosm of North Park's game as a whole. Gardner spend a good chunk of the second half attacking the basket and getting to the line. He had one of five North Park and-ones in the second half, and was able to get to the line several other times. But his performance at the line also served as a microcosm for the game for North Park.

Key Stats

• NCC: 8-17 3PT (47.1%). The Cardinals did a ton of damage on the inside as well, but it was complemented by their outside shooting, especially in the first half when they went a scorching 6-9. That cooled off a ton in the second half, but they didn't rely on it, and when they needed a big three... Drew Gaston gave them the aforementioned one.
• NPU: 15-22 FT (68.2%). In the first half, the Vikings seemed to be settling for outside shots a lot more, and that was a big reason why the Cardinals ended up building that tremendous lead. North Park did a great job adjusting in the second half, when they went into full attack mode and the Cardinals had a tough time stopping them without fouling. As mentioned, the Vikings notched five separate and-ones in the second half alone. Problem was, they couldn't fully capitalize. North Park made 19 trips to the line in the second half alone, but only hit 13, and in a game they lost by five... you do the math.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• AUG 74 (13-8, 6-6), @ MIL 52 (11-11, 5-8)
  
• With the MIL loss, NPU clinches a CCIW Tournament berth
• @ CAR 85 (16-5, 10-2), IWU 74 (18-4, 10-3)
• CAR clinches a CCIW Tournament berth
• @ WHE 91 (5-16, 2-10), CRL 81 (6-15, 2-10)
• BYE: ELM (10-11, 6-6)

Final Thoughts

I wouldn’t be surprised if Soren Richardson wins @CCIW_Athletics Player of the Week for this week.

But I dare you to find a guy who had two more cold-blooded daggers than @DrewGaston5 this week. #WeAreNC #d3hoops pic.twitter.com/QOGsWJtBpD

— Lucas Mitzel🎙 (@northsider89) February 9, 2025

Amazing how quickly a week changes things. A week ago, the Cardinals were coming off their third overtime loss in conference at Augustana with an absolute gauntlet coming up and desperately needing some victories to keep themselves in the conference race. The only team who maybe had a better week than the Cardinals did is Carthage, who after the bye on Wednesday knocked off Wesleyan for the second time this year to put themselves in the driver's seat for the conference title. North Central, meanwhile, has a one game lead for the sixth and final tournament spot, but they're just a half game out of fourth place. The Cardinals cannot catch the top two teams anymore, but they can mathematically still earn a home conference tournament game. They just need to keep this momentum up and probably get some help.

I need to build the spreadsheets again to take a look at all the scenarios, and I'll probably tweet stuff out once I do that. But we're down to a pretty fun race in the CCIW with just two weeks to go. The Cardinals finish off their home gauntlet (and likely their home schedule) as they welcome Carthage to Merner on Wednesday. It's a game I won't attend, but hopefully with how they've played in the last week, they can prove that they have what it takes to stand on their own.

Game Notes: (WBK) North Park University @ North Central College (2/8/25)

Final Score
NCC 82, NPU 71

Game Summary
Senior Day got off to a great start for the Cardinals (9-13, 5-8) as they started all four of their seniors and took a 10-4 lead in the early going. The Vikings (3-19, 0-13) stayed with it though, tying the game twice at 10 and then again at 13. A good NCC response led to a 20-16 Cardinal lead after one. The Cardinals briefly pushed the lead to double digits midway through the second quarter, but the Vikings fought back to within three late, though a late layup helped push the Cardinal halftime lead to 40-34. The third quarter was where the game was effectively decided though, as Cardinal pressure finally ramped up enough, as an extended 14-2 NCC run pushed the Cardinal lead up to 20 as the Vikings went over six minutes without a field goal. NCC led by as many as 22 early in the fourth, with some Viking garbage time scoring bringing the margin down to a more reasonable level.

Key Players

• Biz Daly (NCC): 8-13 FG, 2-2 FT; 18 pts, 2 reb, 3 ast, 1 stl. Coming off the bench for senior Ceyda Yucel on Senior Day, Daly looked back to her form from early in the season. She had a very efficient day and led the team in scoring. While I'd like to have seen more rebounds, her paint presence and scoring touch has improved from her rough stretch recently.
• Jocelyn Trotter (NCC): 4-6 FG, 5-5 FT; 13 pts, 7 reb (4 off), 3 ast, 5 stl. I feel like Trotter is very much a pass-first player, despite multiple calls from Coach McCloskey-Bax to take advantage of open looks. In this one, Trotter was a big key in the Cardinals taking early control as most of her makes came off putbacks, and she took advantage at the free throw line as well. Her five steals in this game give her 47 for the year, which is pretty good given the months she missed due to injury, but she will need to match this game's pace over the final three (a little less if the Cardinals can sneak into the conference tournament) if she wants to join the top ten mark for a single season in program history.
• Caroline Long (NPU): 11-17 FG, 1-3 FT; 23 pts, 3 reb (1 off). Long had the best game out of any of the Vikings. She had a personal 6-0 run once the margin hit 20 in the fourth, and she added another bucket at the end for the last score of the game to give herself high scorer honors for the contest. Unfortunately for her and her team, it wasn't enough to get them over the top.

Key Stats

• NCC: 31 points off 22 NPU turnovers. This is the recipe for NCC's success: get into your full court defense, force turnovers, and cash in. 13 of the giveaways came off Cardinal steals, paced by the aforementioned five from Trotter, with Grace Keiffer notching four more. By comparison, the Cardinals coughed the ball up 16 times, which the Vikings turned into 20 points.
• NPU: 6-12 3PT (50.0%). This was largely buoyed by a 3-5 fourth quarter, but that was part of why this margin was as tight as it was in a game that the Cardinals largely seemed to control. The Vikings' free throw shooting did them no favors (11-19).

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• @ MIL 59 (8-13, 7-5), AUG 51 (9-13, 5-8)
• @ CAR 87 (16-6, 8-5), IWU 81 (20-1, 11-1)
• CRL 71 (15-6, 10-2), @ WHE 63 (11-10, 6-6)
• CRL clinches a CCIW Tournament berth
• BYE: ELM (12-8, 4-8)

Final Thoughts
This caps a solid week for the Cardinals, who after losing a couple rough games last week, had a good bounce back including a huge win in Kenosha this past Wednesday. The twin victories keep North Central's season alive and will hopefully provide a confidence boost. They will need all the help they can get, with a trip to Carroll coming this Wednesday.

Game Notes: (MBK) Illinois Wesleyan University @ North Central College (2/5/25)

Final Score
NCC 72, IWU 64

Game Summary
Early on it seemed like the the number two team in the country in the Titans (18-3, 10-2) would run away with this one as they jumped out to a 12-2 lead just three and a half minutes into the game. But Vince Kmiec called a timeout to stop the bleeding, and that reset got the Cardinals (12-9, 5-7) back on track. The Titans kept in front, leading 19-13 with a little over 12 minutes to go, but then the Cardinals went on an extended 18-0 run to take command of the contest. All told the Titans went seven minutes without a field goal before hitting a three to cut it back to single digits, though the Cardinals would hit a long two to go into the locker room up 41-30. The start of the second half was all Titans again, as they opened on a 14-2 run despite another Kmiec timeout, grabbing the lead for the first time since the opening minutes. That was short lived, as Sean Molloy hit a fallaway from the paint to retake the lead, and that sparked a 7-0 Cardinal run. The Cardinals kept a five point lead with about four minutes to go, but the Titans fought back to tie the contest at 60 with just over three minutes to go. Drew Gaston answered with a fallaway on the ensuing possession, and the Cardinals would lead the rest of the way for the upset.

Key Players

• Tyler Swierczek (NCC): 7-9 FG (3-4 3PT), 2-2 FT; 19 pts, 3 reb (1 off). With Ethan Helwig and Alejandro Diaz out of the lineup, someone needed to step up for the Cardinals, and Swierczek filled that role. He scored eight, including a couple threes, during that critical 18-0 run, and added a couple big baskets during the second half.
• Terrance Moncrief (NCC): 6-16 FG (1-3 3PT), 4-4 FT; 17 pts, 5 reb (2 off), 4 ast, 3 stl. It wasn't the most efficient night for Moncrief, as Hakim Williams did a good job on him on the perimeter. But Moncrief filled in in other ways, and when he was needed he was able to get his points. All four of his free throws came in the closing seconds to ice the game away.
• Drew Gaston (NCC): 5-9 FG (1-3 3PT), 3-3 FT; 14 pts, 2 reb, 1 ast. Getting the start with Diaz out, Gaston played admirably. The Titans though might be seeing baseline fadeaway jumpers in their nightmares as Gaston hit a couple key ones. He gave the Cardinals that 62-60 lead, then added another one with under a minute to go to make it 66-62.

Key Stats

• NCC: 15-17 FT (88.2%). On a night where you're playing the number two team in the country, you need to take advantage of free throws when gifted them by your opponent. And the Cardinals, who Alex Campbell mentioned on the broadcast are the #11 team in the country in free throw percentage, lived up to that reputation. And when the Cardinals needed them the most in the closing minute, the Cardinals went 6-6 to seal the win.
• IWU: 16 turnovers. If there's an Achilles heel to this Titans team, it's taking care of the ball. They're averaging 14 giveaways per game this season, and that theme held true in this game. The Cardinals notched eight of those on steals, took advantage of a couple early offensive fouls on the Titans, and one of those turnovers was the result of a Harrison Wilmsen technical foul. The Cardinals scored 18 points off of those 16 turnovers, while the Titans managed just nine points off six Cardinal giveaways.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• @ ELM 78 (10-11, 6-6), MIL 68 (11-10, 5-7)
• WHE 102 (4-16, 1-10), @ NPU 89 (14-7, 9-3)
• Soren Richardson (WHE): 53 pts
• CAR 84 (15-5, 9-2), @ CRL 75 (6-14, 2-9)
• BYE: AUG (12-8, 5-6)
• WBK: NCC 62 (8-13, 4-8), @ CAR 50 (15-6, 7-5)

Final Thoughts

At least once a year, something magical happens at Merner.

Last night is why I do this. #whyd3 #d3hoops https://t.co/F6IQI0WLPt

— Lucas Mitzel🎙 (@northsider89) February 6, 2025

When these two teams met in Bloomington last month, the Cardinals ended up forcing triple overtime before the Titans finally escaped with a victory. It's been a rough month on the whole for the Cardinals since the drubbing of Wheaton a month ago, with two other overtime losses in addition to that previous game in Bloomington. So in what was an energetic, packed house, this one might have meant just a little bit more. Vince Kmiec cracked after the game that we'd just won a national championship. While that's obvious hyperbole, it was a much needed win, and the fact that it was an upset against the second-ranked team in the country was the proverbial cherry on top.

That proverbial cherry also keeps the Cardinals season alive. There's a clear top three in the Titans along with North Park and Carthage, then a dropoff. Elmhurst is a game clear for the four seed, and the Cardinals are fighting with Augustana and Millikin for the last two spots. NCC has a split with both, but the advantage the Cardinals now have is with this win over the Titans, this win will likely give the Cardinals the edge over both as we get down to the nitty gritty.

Senior Night will be on Saturday as the Cardinals welcome in North Park for another critical game. The Vikings have dominated the series in recent years, but are coming off a shocking loss at home to previously winless in conference Wheaton. The Vikings are just a game out of first with the two teams above them playing, so it's a game both teams need.

Game Notes: (WBK) Millikin University @ North Central College (1/29/25)

Final Score
Millikin 76, NCC 69

Game Summary
It seemed early on like we would be in for a good night as the Cardinals (7-12, 3-7) got some early takeaways off their press and jumped out to a 12-0 lead. But the Big Blue (7-12, 6-4) hit a bunch of threes to keep themselves in the contest, though they would trail 25-18 after one. The Cardinals kept it up in the second quarter and even pushed ahead a little bit for a 40-29 intermission lead. Things seemed in hand as with 6:44 left in the third NCC took its biggest lead of the contest at 48-31. And then it all went to hell. Millikin slowly chipped away, getting it back to single digits with about two minutes to go and cut it to five by the end of the third. The Big Blue needed just a minute to tie the game in the fourth and took their first lead just over a minute later. All told an extended 22-2 run by Millikin decided the game as the Cardinals choked this one away.

Key Players

• Nikkel Johnson (MIL): 9-17 FG, 6-7 FT; 24 pts, 7 reb (3 off), 1 ast, 1 stl. The freshman has missed some time so far this season, but had easily the best game of her young career as she just destroyed the Cardinals' interior defense in the second half. 10 of her 24 came in the second half, including three straight layups on consecutive fourth quarter possessions that more or less salted the game away for the Big Blue. She could be a major problem for CCIW foes in the coming years.
• Bella Dudley (MIL): 8-10 FG (2-2 3PT), 1-3 FT; 19 pts, 5 reb (2 off), 1 ast, 1 stl. Dudley also came off the bench for the Big Blue and was another offensive spark for this team. One of her two threes came immediately in the fourth quarter to cut it to a two point game, but she was also able to easily get to the basket a few times in this one.
• Biz Daly (NCC): 8-12 FG, 3-4 FT; 19 pts, 6 reb (4 off), 1 ast. This is probably the lone bright spot from a rough outing. I've chronicled the struggles the past two games for Daly, but she got into a rhythm early and had a nice bounceback game in this one. She did run into some foul trouble, which might not have helped, but hopefully this was a good confidence builder going into the home stretch.

Key Stats

• NCC: 4-17 FG in the 4th quarter (23.5%). Yeah. From that aforementioned 6:44 mark in the third quarter onward, the Cardinals missed a total of ten layups. Twelve, if you count the pair of missed tip in attempts. Granting that there were some offensive rebounds mixed in there, that's still probably 16-20 points left on the floor in a game you lost by seven. You do the math.
• MIL: 7-14 3PT (50.0%). I mentioned in the summary that their three point shooting kept them in the game early. The Big Blue went 4-5 in the opening quarter to keep from getting their doors blown off, and actually started 5-6 in the game counting Dudley's three early in the second. I'd almost forgotten about the hot start as they missed their next five tries, but the couple hits early in the fourth as part of the aforementioned 22-2 run really swung the momentum.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• @ ELM 80 (12-6, 4-6), AUG 71 (7-12, 3-7)
• WHE 56 (10-9, 5-5), @ NPU 50 (3-16, 0-10)
• @ CRL 80 (13-5, 8-1), CAR 53 (14-5, 6-4)
• BYE: IWU (18-0, 9-0)
  
• MBK: NCC 65 (11-8, 4-6), @ MIL 56 (10-9, 4-6)

Final Thoughts

In a season that has turned frustrating since the calendar flipped to 2025, last night was a new low. Coach McCloskey-Bax mentioned offhand towards the end that they'd spent much of a practice working on layups leading up to this game... and you can see how that went here. It's a devastating loss that puts the Cardinals in the bottom third of the league standings with time running out. NCC is a game back of Elmhurst for the sixth and final spot in the conference tournament, and with the split there we'd have to go through the tiebreaker list to figure out who would get that spot.

Ultimately though the Cardinals have to regroup, as they now find themselves facing an absolute must-win game on Saturday as they head to Rock Island to take on Augustana. The Vikings and Cardinals are tied for seventh in the league standings, with the Cardinals winning the first matchup in Naperville back in December. A sweep would put the Cardinals likely clear of them, but needing to steal another couple games if they want a chance to sneak into the postseason.

Game Notes: (MBK) Elmhurst University @ North Central College (1/25/25)

Final Score
Elmhurst 77, NCC 73 (OT)

Game Summary
In another heartbreaker, the Cardinals (10-8, 3-6) got off to a good start, scoring on the game's first possession and using a 10-0 to flip a five point margin early on to keep the game in their control. Elmhurst stuck around though, not letting it get beyond that five point deficit before coming back, though NCC would lead 30-29 going into halftime. The second half saw the Cardinals go up by a game-high eight early, and after a layup gave the Cardinals a 45-39 edge, the Jays countered with a 9-0 run to go up three. Naturally, the Cardinals responded with a 9-0 run of their own to retake that lead. It would be short-lived though, as Elmhurst scored the next seven, and a quick Cardinal three to regrab the lead was answered. The teams traded two point possessions a bit, but 40 minutes would not be enough on this night as we went to overtime. Early Cardinal baskets were quickly answered, and the Jays went up four with about two minutes to go. But the Cardinals found a way to tie the game at 73 with just 13 seconds to go. Unfortunately, Vinnie Adjahoungbeta was able to work his way free on the right side and got a floater to go with 2.8 seconds to go, and Ethan Helwig's baseball pass down the court went harmlessly out of bounds to allow the Blue Jays to escape with the win.

Key Players

• Dominic Trelenberg (ELM): 6-14 FG (1-3 3PT), 7-8 FT; 20 pts, 8 reb (4 off), 3 ast, 1 blk, 1 stl. Trelenberg had the best outing of the Jays in this one, as he was able to get to the basket enough in this one despite a decent Cardinal defensive effort. He scored six of his points in the extra session, four off free throws, assisted on the three that put the Jays up four, and got a layup that made it 73-71.
• Vinnie Adjahoungbeta (ELM): 4-10 FG (0-1 3PT), 2-3 FT; 10 pts, 11 reb (4 off), 2 ast, 1 stl. In 30 minutes off the bench, Adjahoungbeta was able to wreak a ton of havoc on the glass, and then hit what proved to be the game-winner in the closing seconds.
• Alejandro Diaz (NCC): 7-11 FG (3-7 3PT), 2-4 FT; 19 pts, 4 reb (1 off), 1 ast, 2 stl. As the leading scorer, Diaz was a big reason why the Cardinals stayed in this game, though it could be argued he's fortunate he was. Diaz picked up his second foul fairly early in the first half, then got his third before Vince Kmiec could get him out. Diaz would not pick up another, which worked out as he hit some big shots, especially in the second half.

Key Stats

• NCC: 7-12 FG (58.3%). This undersells how bad this was. In regulation the Cardinals were just 3-8 from the stripe. All but one of those shots came in the second half, with the misses all coming off either and-ones (though one would result in a second chance layup) or on the front end of one-and-one's. If even one of those free throws falls, we're talking about a completely different game.
• ELM: Outscored NCC on second chances 22-6. Honestly, this was more so the game. Elmhurst won the rebounding battle 43-35, which is significant, but maybe not 16 points significant. But it was the 16 Blue Jay offensive rebounds to eight for North Central, and that more or less sums up how this game went.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• @ CAR 77 (14-4, 8-1), AUG 69 (10-8, 3-6)
• NPU 69 (13-5, 8-1), @ MIL 61 (10-8, 4-5)
• @ IWU 90 (16-2, 8-1), WHE 68 (3-15, 0-9)
• BYE: CRL (6-11, 2-6)

Final Thoughts

This one hurt. The Wheaton game feels like an eternity ago, and since then the Cardinals have dropped four straight. All six of their CCIW losses are to teams ahead of them, with wins against the teams they're grouped with. If the season ended today the Cardinals would sneak into that sixth seed by virtue of the head to head win over Augie, but that's from even longer ago. I wasn't sure what the ceiling of this team was coming into the season, and I got excited early on that this team could be sneaky good. But at this point, they seem like a middle of the pack CCIW team. They need to get things figured out if they want to make the CCIW Tournament, but it won't be easy with a trip to Millikin on the docket next.

Game Notes: (WBK) Elmhurst University @ North Central College (1/25/25)

Final Score
Elmhurst 69, NCC 65

Game Summary
The Blue Jays (11-6, 3-6) opened the game on an 8-2 run to take the early control, though the Cardinals (7-11, 3-6) did a good job answering back, taking a 15-12 lead after one quarter. They'd push the lead as high as five, but couldn't sustain it and a late bucket gave the Jays a 30-28 halftime lead. Elmhurst pushed their lead up to seven midway through the third quarter, but the Cardinals followed that with an 11-2 run to retake the lead, though Elmhurst would tie it at 50 to end the third. The fourth quarter was largely back and forth, though the Jays held the advantage for most of it. The key stretch came with under a minute to go when a Jocelyn Trotter three tied the game at 63 with 35 seconds to go. Unfortunately, Elmhurst easily broke the Cardinal press for a layup, and the Cardinals never truly threatened again.

Key Players

• Cierra Steemer (ELM): 9-20 FG, 1-2 FT; 19 pts, 17 reb (8 off), 1 ast, 3 blk. The Cardinals did a decent job on Steemer, though she absolutely got hers throughout the game. She made what turned out to be the game-winning layup for the Jays with 28 seconds to go and absolutely dominated the glass.
• Kristin Bukata (ELM): 4-15 FG (0-2 3PT), 7-8 FT; 15 pts, 4 reb (1 off), 5 ast, 1 stl. Bukata is sneaky good. She struggled shooting on the whole, yet finished as the second leading scorer for the Jays and seemed like she scored in some key situations for them.
• Jocelyn Trotter (NCC): 9-11 FG (1-1 3PT), 2-2 FT; 21 pts, 10 reb (4, off), 1 ast, 2 blk, 3 stl. This seems like your typical Jocelyn Trotter game. It's her second straight double-double and third since returning from injury earlier this season. Most of her baskets were her bread and butter pull up jumpers, and she also hit that big three that tied the game at 63. It just wasn't enough today.

Key Stats

• NCC: 8-14 FT (57.1%). For the season, the Cardinals have been around 70 percent from the stripe, so this was an alarming game. They also only shot from the stripe in the second and third quarters, with none in the starting or ending stanzas. Elmhurst, for its part, hit at that 70 percent clip.
• ELM: 18 fast break points. The Cardinal pressure defense did do its part, but the Jays seemed like they had a pretty good grip on it. They were able to run the floor a decent amount and get some easy baskets. None more so than easily breaking the press of Trotter's game-tying three, and going tic-tac-toe to find Steemer for that game-winning layup.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• @ CAR 61 (14-4, 6-3), AUG 52 (7-11, 3-6)
• @ MIL 72 (6-12, 5-4), NPU 61 (3-15, 0-9)
• @ IWU 93 (18-0, 9-0), WHE 57 (9-9, 4-5)
• BYE: CRL (12-5, 7-1)

Final Thoughts

It has just been heartbreak after heartbreak with this team. After starting CCIW play 2-1, the Cardinals have dropped five of their last six. This also continues an infuriating pattern when playing the other DuPage County bird team: each of the last three seasons the Cardinals have won relatively easily in the first meeting of each season at Elmhurst (including a 20 point victory earlier this season) only to blow it at home on the return trip.

It was another rough game for Biz Daly as well, as she only went 1-10 from the field. Credit to Steemer for defense, but I also wonder a bit of Daly is starting to force it after the Carthage game. Hopefully she'll be able to find her form again soon.

It's getting late early for this Cardinal team; while they still find themselves in the hunt for a CCIW Tournament bid, a loss to a team they'd already beaten once hurts, and they remain in a tie for that final spot with this Blue Jay team who they now have a split with (which means they'll need a separate tiebreaker) and an Augustana team who they do have a win against already. It likely means they'll need to steal one against somebody above them the rest of the way, though they'll have a chance to do that when Millikin comes calling on Wednesday.