5 observations from yesterday's games
A look back on another huge evening in Division III women's basketball
We have a pretty limited slate of games this evening, so I thought I’d take a look back on yesterday’s action, and what stood out to me from around the country. Similar to what we’ve seen for the majority of this year, the nation’s top teams all came away with wins for the most part, and our upsets were pretty limited, at least within the Top 100 group. But nonetheless, there was a ton of great basketball, and this point in the year makes these conference games so much fun. Most leagues still have three contenders as far as regular season titles go, but the picture is getting much clearer, which raises the stakes in a lot of these matchups. The dynamic of NPI this year and the at-large bid conversation is now very much at play as well, especially on a day like yesterday, when so many teams took the court.
So before shifting our focus to the weekend, here are five of my observations from yesterday. Was there another storyline I didn’t include here? Leave a comment below!
Whittier finds a way to win yet again, and nobody in the SCIAC is stopping the Poets
Coming into the season, Cal Lutheran seemed to be the favorite in the SCIAC, considering the Regals’ strong returning production, including stellar sophomore forward Alline Ballard. By the time we reached mid-November, Redlands entered that conversation, beating St. Catherine, Transylvania, and keeping pace with Smith in a five-point loss. But at this point, it seems nobody is catching Whittier.
There’s no question that the Poets have a good thing going, and we saw that last night, as they won on the road, 67-63, at second-place Occidental. A back-and-forth battle came down to the wire, as the Poets closed on a 6-0 run after trailing, 63-61, with 1:17 left. Rhe Nae Leach had all six of those points as she continues building her SCIAC Player of the Year resume, including the go-ahead score with 20 seconds left. But perhaps Leach’s biggest play came defensively, when she forced Oxy’s Paige Yasukochi into a turnover with under five seconds left, eliminating any possibility of Oxy forcing the game into OT. Nobody can stop the Poets right now, as they hold a three-game lead on the SCIAC standings at 9-0.
You can’t overlook the job that head coach Kristen Dowling has done this season, especially considering she was hired in October. It’s not like she had a ton of time to get acquainted with her new team before the season actually tipped off, and yet, Whittier is playing team basketball; everyone knows their role, and it’s showing in the results.
Baldwin Wallace’s lock-down defense continues to pay dividends
Amongst non-undefeated teams in Division III women’s hoops, Baldwin Wallace has the longest win streak in the country, having rebounded nicely from the 72-67 season-opening loss to Washington & Jefferson. BW won its 17th straight game last night, and did so in a game that saw neither the Yellow Jackets nor Ohio Northern even reach the 50-point mark. And that wasn’t necessarily a rarity for BW, who played Mount Union to a 46-45 victory two weeks ago in Alliance. Their defensive style is just so difficult for opposing offenses, and there’s a good reason why only five of their 18 opponents have hit 60 points in games this season. And it’s that presence on the defensive end that serves the Yellow Jackets well on nights like last night, when ONU was similarly locked in defensively and shots weren’t falling at a consistent rate. After all, 22% of BW’s scoring output came at the free throw line. At 11-0 in the OAC now, there’s definitely a clear path now for the Yellow Jackets to run the table in these final three-and-a-half weeks.
Has the tide shifted for Carroll?
The Carroll team we all thought was Top 25 caliber certainly looked the part in early November. In the 62-60 loss at highly-regarded UW-Whitewater. In the 80-75 win at Hope.
Then they took a wrong turn, and struggled to find their way back, going 1-3 in a key four-game stretch from Nov. 26 to Dec. 7. The eyebrow-raising results haven’t entirely gone away — they escaped an upset bid at home just last Wednesday, beating Elmhurst, 73-71 — but recent performances are forcing me to take a harder look at the Pioneers as I evaluate my Top 25. Last night’s dominant 80-53 win over Carthage is the exact reason why. Not solely that one game, but the recent performances along those same lines. When they met Carthage on Dec. 4, Carroll edged the Firebirds, 72-67. Now nearly two months later, the margin of victory was far different, at 27 points in a contest the Pioneers led from start to finish.
Along with the 100-73 win over Wheaton and the 81-52 decision at Augustana, this high-powered offense seems to have found a rhythm. That’s a scary thing for the rest of the CCIW, with Carroll heading towards a high-profile showdown at Illinois Wesleyan next Wednesday. Their chances of making the NCAA Tournament are now up 7.2% to 57.5%.
Once again, the WIAC finds a way to surprise us
After seeing No. 4-ranked UW-Oshkosh go to River Falls and lose on Saturday, we got yet another upset over a Top 15 WIAC team yesterday. UW-La Crosse’s 84-76 overtime win at No. 15 UW-Stout marked the lone instance on Wednesday’s slate in which an unranked opponent beat a Top 25 foe, and like the River Falls win last weekend, you had a feeling that a UWL win was possible, but seemed unlikely just the same. Stout was at home and in the midst of a six-game win streak, having beaten UW-Platteville handily, 74-53, on Saturday.
But you just never know in the WIAC, and UWL took advantage of its opportunity, turning 21 Stout turnovers in 17 points and tallying 46 points in the paint. The Eagles are very capable of competing with the WIAC’s best, and even after Stout took some momentum into OT, having tied the game with 13 seconds left on a 3-pointer by Lexi Wagner, UWL never seemed phased. OT went back and forth, but then came an 8-0 run from UWL, and Stout simply had no answer.
To win on the road against a team of Stout’s experience and depth deserves praise, even with Stout’s self-inflicted miscues playing a role in the outcome. UWL is one of those teams that, if they end up as the No. 5 or No. 6 seed in the WIAC Tournament, will be awfully dangerous. Because while they have some areas of weaknesses, especially defensively, their ceiling feels very high. And we saw a little bit of what that high ceiling looked like last night.
Christopher Newport became first team to reach 20 wins this season, and Guilford made them earn every bit of the 7-point win
From Guilford’s promotion of the game to the fact that CNU entered yesterday’s contest in Greensboro as the nation’s 10th-ranked team, it was clear that the Quakers had this home duel circled on the calendar. And why wouldn’t they? With nothing to lose and playing CNU for the first time in a decade, Guilford gave it everything in an attempt at an upset, even leading by seven early in the fourth quarter.
For much of the game, it seemed Guilford handled CNU’s full-court pressure extremely well, making smart passes and taking advantage of the transition scoring opportunities that are bound to come when facing a team of CNU’s defensive style. But that poise seemed to slowly fade as the Captains took their press up a notch and started hitting shots at a consistent rate. In all, CNU outscored Guilford, 23-11, over the final 10 minutes, avenging Guilford’s prior 20-2 run that turned up the pressure and put CNU in the danger zone for a brief time. Guilford’s effort level was exceptional, and that’s why I say they made CNU earn every bit of the win.
The Captains got very few “easy” buckets down the stretch, especially in the 10 minutes from the 5:00 mark of the third to the 5:00 mark of the fourth. I was impressed by Guilford’s defensive effort more than anything, and I’d think that’s one of the Quakers’ better performances on that end of the floor this season. On the flip side, CNU didn’t panic, and true to form, made more plays down the stretch. They’re that kind of team. With the depth on the bench and the up-tempo style, CNU has the ability to shift momentum in a matter of a few possessions, as they seemed to do last night. Fun fact: The Captains have now won 47 of their last 48 road games.