Northwestern 11/15/11

On Tuesday night we took on the Eagles from Northwestern in our first game. We usually played them the first game of the year and we always know it's going to be a close game. They are very well coached and their kids always play hard. On top of it, they were a NCAA Tournament team last season and lost in the first round to St. Thomas. They return their top two scorers from last season in Wade Chitwood and Tom Gisler. They did lose the UMAC MVP in Brian Lechler but I expect them to be a NCAA Tournament team again this year.

Right from the get go we knew we would have a battle on our hands. Northwestern plays very good helpside defense and tries to clog up the driving lanes and angles in order for us to settle for 3's. Their plan definitely worked. We ended up shooting 4-12 from 3 in the first half and only got to the free throw line once. Not exactly a stellar performance on our part. We definitely weren't being patient with our offense. Instead of getting great shots, we were getting decent shots that we could get at any time during the possession. We ended up being up 33-27 at the half. Not exactly our pace but having the lead and not playing particularly well was ok.

We gained control early in the second half, as our lead hovered from anywhere from four to ten points. Down the stretch of the second half things seemed to unravel for us. We weren't clicking at all offensively. We were struggling a bit defensively with finding their shooters. They also got a couple of scores on out of bounds plays. We were definitely on our heels as they gained more and more confidence.

With a little more than a minute to play, the Eagles took a two point lead after hitting a layup on a pick and roll. Immediately after, we pushed the ball up the floor and Brandon Rieg hit a monster 3 to put us up one. It was a huge 3 and all of a sudden we got some energy back. After a couple of scrambling defensive possessions we came up with a steal and it fell into the hands of Brandon again. He made both free throws and we ended up winning 64-61.

Overall, we didn't play particularly well and wasn't able to play at the pace that we wanted. There are definitely some positives to the win though. We didn't play that well (in part because Northwestern is good) and still grinded out a victory while shooting 7-21 from 3 and 5-6 from the free throw line. We won by playing at the other team's pace. It was a low scoring game. That is probably what will happen as the season progresses, teams will try to slow down the speed of the game and make us play in the half court. We beat a good team. Like I said before, Northwestern will probably be a tournament team and that helps us tremendously even this earlier in the season.

We were led by Mike Campbell's 14 points and Victor Easter's 10 (which were all in the first half). Other guys that I thought did some good things for us throughout the game include Al Tillman, Charlie Choiniere, and Dior Ford. I don't want people to think that all we care about is scoring.

We play again on Tuesday at UW-Eau Claire. I'm not sure if they have live video but I'll find out and hopefully post a link. They beat St. Scholastica on Tuesday and held them to 25% shooting on their home floor. They also play this weekend at a "Classic" at UW-Platteville, home of the fighting Rusthoven's.