Wheaton College looking strong in CCIW
The Wheaton College women's basketball team is in an enviable position. The Thunder is 18-2 on the season and in complete control of its own destiny in the CCIW.
Saturday the Thunder won its second game of the season against its closest conference opponent, North Central, and did so in impressive fashion. The Cardinals had been scoring at a nearly unheard of clip, averaging more than 90 a game.
Wheaton not only held the Cardinals to just 60 points but put up 109 of its own.
With the win Wheaton has a game separation between any other team in conference and has the head-to-head tiebreaker with North Central. Now, it can focus on the only CCIW team to beat it this year.
The Thunder will look to avenge a 62-48 upset loss to North Park and win its sixth straight game. Wheaton hosts North Park on Wednesday night.
Benedictine:
The Eagles' Meghan Novak was named the NACC women's basketball player of the week.
Novak has been on a nice stretch of late. The senior guard has scored more than 20 points in each of the last three games, all victories for Benedictine. She's also helped lead the team to second place in the NACC with their only two conference losses on the season coming to first-place Wisconsin Lutheran.
Adding to her accolades, Novak scored her 1,000th collegiate point last month in a win against Aurora. In the two games that earned Novak the weekly award, she also had a combined 8 assists, 5 steals and 8 rebounds.
North Central:
The Cardinals men's basketball team is looking to right the ship. North Central was picked as one of the teams to compete for the conference championship at the beginning of the year. Now, the Cardinals are fading at the wrong time.
The Cardinals have lost four of their last six games, including losses to two of the teams ahead of them in conference. The losses have come by an average of nearly 12 points.
Despite their struggles it would take an even bigger meltdown for North Central to miss postseason play. Winning two of their final five should be enough to get the Cardinals into the CCIW playoffs. However, the struggles may continue in the immediate future. They hit the road to play CCIW leader Augustana on Wednesday and second-place Illinois Wesleyan Saturday.
Elmhurst:
The Bluejays have three conference losses on the men's basketball season to only two teams. While they missed out on payback against one of those teams, they will look to make up for it Wednesday.
Elmhurst was surprised earlier this year by Carthage, losing 70-68. Wednesday it has to go on the road to return the favor.
The other conference team to beat the Bluejays on the season was first-place Augustana, which beat them by a combined 6 points in two games. The latest loss came at home last week. The Bluejays took top 10 nationally ranked Augustana to overtime but couldn't get over the hump. They could see the Vikings again if they match up in CCIW playoffs.