Millikin drops Wheaton to 0-3 in CCIW
It's a good thing Millikin coach Lori Kerans warned her team about Wheaton College women's basketball.
Otherwise the visiting Big Blue might not have been able to withstand an impressive second-half rally that saw the Thunder (8-6, 0-3) cut what was once an 18-point margin down to a single point following a 3-pointer by Jamie Jones with 4:01 left to play.
Millikin, powered by All-America center Lindsay Ipple's 24 points, regrouped and held on for a 64-58 victory Tuesday night in Wheaton.
"I'll tell you what, there's no coach in the conference that scares me more than Beth Baker," Kerans said of Wheaton's leader. "I told my players that they were going to come after us in the second half. It's a real credit to her and her team. I thought they had us."
Considering the Thunder is playing without injured guards Lissie McAlvey and Lynnea Kvam and then shot a woeful 6 of 28 while falling behind 33-18 at the half, it would seem unlikely they could even make a game of it against a Millikin squad fresh off Saturday's win at 10th-ranked Illinois Wesleyan.
But Wheaton used a full-court press to help get back into the game, and Wheaton Academy grad Sarah Jones helped out with a pair of 3-pointers in the second half to go along with another stellar performance from junior Kathleen Fidelia, who finished with 18 points and 2 assists. Freshman Annie Bowen, Wheaton North's all-time leading rebounder, had a tip-in that cut Millikin's lead to 41-27 with 14:52 left to play.
"We shot 21 percent and that was a our worst half," said Baker, whose team is the three-time defending College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin champ. "We played hard but we're a struggling team. We had two surgeries last week and we've lost two starting guards."
Wheaton's Whitney Edgecombe, Carissa Bacon and Jamie Jones took turns trying to contain the 6-foot-2 Ippel, but the Big Blue star still managed 13 points in the first half and 24 points and 8 rebounds for the game.
"We need to go to Lindsay because Lindsay's our superstar," Kerans said. "But we're at our best when we're balanced. When we were running in the first half you saw four different players hit 3s. I was real pleased with how we played in the first half."
Ippel capped Millikin's big first half with a 3-point buzzer beater after her team inbounded the ball under the Wheaton basket with less than three seconds on the clock. But most of her work comes down low where she draws plenty of attention from opposing defenses.
"At the beginning of the season, we could not finish off a ball game to save our lives," said Ippel, whose team is now 10-4 overall and 2-1 in the CCIW. "But now we're starting to believe. And winning here is big. Wheaton is always a great team."
-- Stan Goff
Men's basketball
Benedictine 86, Concordia 68:ŒThe Benedictine players know that they'll have to play with a lot of patience in order to contend for the Northern Athletics Conference title, and they displayed that patience against visiting Concordia Chicago.
The hot-shooting Eagles led for most of the game and pulled away in the second half to win 86-68 to sweep the Cougars in the season series.
"We moved the ball around and played together," said Antonio Brooks, who scored a game-high 18 points. "We played with intensity and we communicated well on defense. This game will give us the confidence we need to do better things in conference."
Brooks led a balanced scoring attack for Benedictine (6-9, 5-3) with four players scoring in double figures and three more totaling at least 6 points.
"The last couple of days we've stressed getting the ball from one side of the court to the other," said Benedictine coach Keith Bunkenburg. "We force teams to guard all five of us. We have a lot of guys who can hit from the perimeter and also go inside."
High-scorer Jared Bailey was next in the points parade with 16, while Cameron Snelling came off the bench to put in 15 points and grab 6 rebounds, and Tim Swanson registered 13 points.
"We just wanted to share the ball a lot," Bailey said. "Get everybody involved, move around and get easy looks. We wanted to go inside-out and it worked."
The Cougars (2-11, 2-6) hung with the Eagles for the first 12 minutes of the game and trailed by only 3 at that time.
But then the Eagles' shooting kicked in, and they built a 38-26 lead with three minutes to go in the half and never relinquished the double-digit advantage after that.
Benedictine expanded the margin to 18 in the first four minutes of the second half and pretty much coasted the rest of the way.
"We still feel we can win this league," Bunkenburg said. "There are 10 conference games left and we have three losses. It's a marathon. We can beat or lose to anyone in our conference. Consistency has been a problem for us, but now we have to put together four or five good games and we'll be in a position to win it."
The Eagles shot 54 percent from the field and went 10 of 19 from beyond the arc.
It was a disappointing loss for Concordia, who lost to the Eagles by only 6 points at home last December.
"They ran their offense much better than they did in the first game," said Concordia coach Brian Sommerhauser, who used all 18 of his players, trying to find the right combination. "We just didn't have enough energy to match them early on and we were scrambling after that. They worked harder than us and they don't miss many shots."
-- Neil Shalin
Girls basketball
St. Edward 48, Immaculate Conception 38:ŒDominating on the boards throughout the entire first half, it appeared that Immaculate Conception had Tuesday's Suburban Catholic Conference matchup at St. Edward under wraps.
But a momentum-shifting third quarter offensive push from the Green Wave would put them on top where it would remain for the duration, collecting a 48-38 SCC victory.
Trailing 22-20 at the half, St. Edward came out firing, opening the second half with a 9-0 run.
Junior guard Katie Yohn found Celeste VonAhnen under the net for two quick points just 50 seconds into the third quarter.
"We picked up the intensity in the second half," said St. Edward coach Michelle Dawson. "We knew we had to start hitting the boards harder."
Kelly Knott followed, connecting from long distance, recording the first of 10 points she would score that quarter. Knott quickly added 2 more points on a breakaway assisted by Yohn.
VonAhnen drew the charge on the opposite end, and went on to score the next two buckets, both assisted by Yohn.
"We did a really nice job following our game plan in the first half," said IC coach Dan Murray. "We played very well and we did a nice job containing Yohn.
"We came out flat in the third quarter, and this is hard for a coach to say, but they (St. Edward) wanted it more than we did."
-- Jen LaPorte
Montini 75, Aurora Central 33: Montini sophomore center Michala Johnson surpassed 1,000 career points in the Broncos' Suburban Catholic Conference victory in Aurora. Johnson reached the landmark on the 17th of her game-high 24 points. Montini (15-4, 7-0) outscored Aurora Central 20-2 in the first quarter and 29-5 in the third quarter. Mallory Sosnovich added 11 points for the Broncos. Cootie Leeberg and Whitney Holloway had 7 steals apiece.
Herscher 61, Lisle 45: The Lions were eliminated from the Interstate Eight Conference Tournament in Seneca. Sarah Urban scored a team-high 14 points for Lisle (7-14).
Downers Grove North 53, Proviso West 42: The host Trojans made 23 of 35 free throws to Proviso West's 13 of 33 and overcame a 14-9 deficit after the first quarter of the West Suburban Silver game. Missy Blazej scored 16 points and Niki Sebo 11 for Downers North (9-11, 4-4).
Boys basketball
Wheaton Academy 64, Orangewood (Fla.) Christian 55: In Orlando full-court pressure forced 10 turnovers during Wheaton Academy's 30-5 fourth-quarter run over Orangewood (6-9), part of the Warriors' annual "Winterim" break. Sparking the rally from a 50-34 deficit after three quarters, David Toellen, Ben Euler and Quinn Gorski scored 16, 14 and 9 points, respectively. Wheaton Academy (11-4) plays The Master's Academy (Fla.) on Thursday.
Peotone 59, Lisle 40: Host Peotone (13-5, 4-3) shrugged off a 10-10 first-quarter tie to beat the Lions in Interstate Eight Conference action. Guard Marcus Wilson's 12 points led Lisle (6-14, 4-3).