IWU 75 Elmhurst 71 (2/9/08)

After IWU played at Wash U way back on December 8, Bears head coach Mark Edwards told the Pantagraph, "I'm glad we played them in December and not February." Tyler Nading was quoted in the Wash U student newspaper as saying, "That team is going to be good and they're developing and maturing as a team right now, but I think February and March they're going to be very tough."

Well here we are in February, and they were right - IWU is a good basketball team.

Despite a horrendous performance from the FT line (15-35 - how does that happen?), the Titans played exceptionally last night in a huge win.

Defensively, once again it was Sean Dwyer on an opposing team's best perimeter player, and 5-11 Dwyer frustrated 6-4 Ryan Burks all evening. Burks had just 2 points in the first half (2 free throws) and did not even attempt a 3-pointer. I think anyone who has seen Burks play knows how hard it is to hold him without a 3-point attempt. Elmhurst did a better job getting Burks looks in the second half - he ended up scoring 15 points - but he had to work extremely hard for everything he got. Brent Ruch, who did not start again for some reason, had a great game down low for the Bluejays - 25 pts, 11-14 FG in 29 minutes. IWU could not begin to stop Ruch one-on-one, but it seemed like Ron Rose & Co. were willing to give Ruch his points, in return for covering all of the perimeter shooters as best they could. After seeing the game at Elmhurst, I didn't think there was anyway the Titans could play the Bluejays man-to-man with all of their incredible size, but IWU played all man last night, and that really impressed me.

Offensively, the Titans played smart and efficiently. The gameplan became apparent in the first few minutes of the game as IWU spread Elmhurst out and let guards Travis Rosenkranz and Sean Dwyer get past their man and to the basket. The two point-guards who start for the Titans were able to get into the lane and either score or distribute time and time again. Darius Gant had another huge game, finishing with 20 points, to go along with 13 rebounds. Darius was great down low, even though giving up at least 5 inches to Ruch and Hintzsche. Sean Johnson was the one Titan who was never able to get going last night. Matt Ryder did a terrific job shadowing Johnson all night long and it was crystal clear Mark Scherer was not going to allow his guards to ever leave Johnson. The attention Elmhurst paid to Johnson at the perimeter (not allowing his man to help down low) created one-on-one opportunities for Gant, Brett Chamernik, and Doug Sexauer down low, and one-on-one, all three of those guys can score. Sexauer had another good game, scoring 11 points on 4-6 shooting. Rosenkranz was very good as well, scoring 13, as was Duncan Lawson in the 6 minutes he was in there (2-3 FG, 5 points).

The Titans led the final 30 minutes of the game and really just out-played the Bluejays. Ron Rose did a terrific job creating the gameplan and getting his team ready for this game, and his players executed almost perfectly (everywhere except the FT line that is!). Elmhurst is so much bigger and stronger than IWU it's ridiculous, yet the Titans were the aggressor all night long. IWU pulled down 13 offensive rebounds to Elmhurst's 3 and as I look at the boxscore, that may be the one thing that stands out more than anything.

Ron Rose is doing an outstanding job with this team.