December 18, 2007

Complete Game Notes

Game 11
Howard (3-7) vs. Northwestern (4-4)

Date: Thursday, Dec. 20
Time: 8 p.m. EST
Place: Welsh-Ryan Arena, Evanston, Ill.
Series: First meeting

The Game
This is a non conference match-up between the Bison of Howard University from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and the Wildcats of Northwestern University from the Big Ten Conference.  The Bison (3-7) dropped a 95-59 decision to VMI on the road 10 days ago while the Wildcats (4-4) edged Western Michigan, 65-63 on the road last Saturday for their third straight victory. 

Howard
Probable Starters

No.	Name	Pos.	Cl.	Ht.	2007-08 Stats
05	Adam Walker	F	Fr.	6-8	5.8 ppg/ 5.1 rpg
15	Kyle Riley	G	Fr.	6-3	9.0 ppg/2.7 rpg
33	Eugene Myatt	G	Jr.	6-5	17.8 ppg/3.6 rpg
22	Jeron Smith	G	Sr.	6-5	9.4 ppg/3.4 rpg
54	Paul Kirkpatrick	C	So.	6-9	2.7 ppg/3.3 rpg

 Reserves

No.	Name	Pos.	Cl.	Ht.	2007-08 Stats
0	Curtis White	G	So.	6-4	5.0 ppg/3.0 rpg
1	Kandi Mukole	F	So.	6-8	7.1 ppg/4.5 rpg

Northwestern
Probable Starters

No.	Name	Pos.	Cl.	Ht.	2007-08 Stats
32	Sterling Williams	G/F	Jr.	6-3	8.4 ppg/3.1 rpg
3	Jeff Ryan	G/F	So.	6-7	7.6 ppg/3.2 rpg
11	Nikola Baran	F	Fr.	8-8	4.0 ppg/1.3 rpg
20	Craig Moore	G	Fr.	6-6	4.5 ppg/2.1 rpg
22	Michael Thompson	G	Fr.	5-10	14.1 ppg/5.2 apg

Reserves

No.	Name	Pos.	Cl.	Ht.	2007-08 Stats
1	Jason Okrzesik	G	Sr.	6-1	12.5 ppg/3.1 rpg
3	Mike Capocci	F	Fr.	6-6	5.8 ppg/1.9 rpg

The Coaches
Howard is coached by Gil Jackson (Elizabethtown College, '69), who is in his third season and has a 19-48 career record to date.  Northwestern is coached by Bill Carmody (Union, '75), who is in his 8th season and has a 99-116 record to date there.  Carmody's overall slate is 191-141 in 12-plus seasons of coaching.

Wildcat Notes
Northwestern is being out-rebounded by an average of over 13 per game...the Wildcats have held their last three opponents to an average of under 60 points, all victories...Northwestern is forcing over 17 turnovers per game while committing a little over 10 per contest...as a team, the Wildcats are averaging almost 10 steals per game...Northwestern is a plus 4 on turnover ratio.

Bison Hooves
The Bison have had 10 different starting lineups due to injuries...the team lost projected starting point guard and Chicago native Julius Hearn before the season started to a knee injury that required surgery...then both freshman forward Adam Walker and freshman guard Kyle went down with injuries just before the season opener...they both returned only to have starting forward Randy Hampton suffer a concussion in the game against Hampton that caused him to miss the past two games...and if that was not enough, starting point guard Jeron Smith suffered a shoulder injury following a dunk in the game against American University that forced him to miss the VMI game...the Bison suited up only nine players in the game against VMI...Myatt leads the team in scoring, in three-point shooting, in assists and in minutes played...both he and Jeron Smith are shooting over 50 percent from the field...freshman guard Kyle Riley led the team in scoring in the loss to VMI with a career-high 17 points...Smith's four steals against American were a career best...he leads the team with 17...as a team, Howard is shooting only 26 percent from three-point range...the Bison have had troubles rebounding as their opponents hold a 10-rebound per game advantage...Howard is on a pace to have one of its best seasons in recent years in blocked shots...the Bison currently have 45, an average of 4.5 per game...Walker leads the way with 11 while Kirkpatrick has 10...Myatt's 30 three-point baskets are more than he scored in the previous two seasons combined.

Next Up
Howard remains in the Chicago area as it takes on the University of Illinois at Chicago on Saturday at 3 pm (CST) while the Wildcats are off until January 2 when they host Penn State in their conference opener.