By: Tim Schappaugh had 17 points to top five IC scorers that reached double-figures in the contest.
Box Score JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – With as many newcomers as the Illinois College men's basketball team has, there were many questions in the preseason about the team. Who would take over the scoring burden? Who would step in to replace graduated All-MWC selections
Brandon Berry and
Nathan Kohler? On Friday night at Sherman Gymnasium, some of those questions began to be answered. Behind a team-high 17 points and five assists from sophomore guard
Tim Schappaugh, and other solid contributions from up and down the roster, the Blueboys started their season off right with a 90-68 victory over the Rockford Regents.
Other double-figure scorers for Illinois College were freshman
David Bauer with 13, sophomores
Brad Herrmann and
Mitchell Patterson with 12 each and sophomore
Brendan Barlow with 11. Patterson and senior
Brandon Fishburn shared team-high honors in rebounding with six apiece.
Rockford would hold exactly one lead in the game, a 5-4 edge after two free throws from Kenny Parks with less than four minutes gone by. Fishburn answered that with a three-pointer on the other end to put IC on top, 7-5. A minute later, a free throw from Zach Wallace would trim the RU deficit to one at 7-6, but the Blueboys responded with a 20-4 run to take a commanding 27-10 advantage. Sophomore
John Taylor had all five of his points over that span and Herrmann nailed one of his four three-pointers on the night to put IC on top by double-digits for the first time. He would add another at the nine-minute mark to cap the hot stretch from the Blueboy offense.
Eventually, Illinois College began to cool off, allowing Rockford to come back via the free throw line. The Regents made 17-of-20 from the charity stripe in the first 20 minutes while IC only attempted one single free throw in the first half. At the end of the opening stanza, a lead that peaked at 17 was trimmed to eight at 40-32.
Herrmann opened the second half with another triple to help quell some of Rockford's momentum. The last time the Regents would trail by less than 10 came after Parks hit two more free throws – he would end the night 10-of-10 from the line en route to a game-high 18 points – to make it 47-38 with over 18 minutes to play. On the other end, Patterson finished a tough layup with the foul to extend Illinois College out to a 12-point edge.
The lead would only grow from there. A Bauer three-pointer gave the Blueboys a 20-point cushion at 62-42 with 13:50 remaining. After a defensive stop, freshman
Max Stutsman showed a nice touch with a corner jumper to give IC its largest lead of the night.
Rockford was able to turn some sloppy play from the Blueboys into points as the game drew to a close, but a comeback was always unlikely. The Regents were able to close within 10 points with five minutes to play, but the final eight points all belong to Illinois College as Rockford's legs finally began to give out. It was a good defensive showing from IC on the night. The Blueboys limited the Regents to 29 percent shooting from the field and 19 percent from behind the arc.
Illinois College returns to the hardwood tomorrow at 4 p.m. to face Illinois Wesleyan in the championship game of the Bill Merris Tournament. The Titans pulled away late to defeat Buena Vista, 76-63, earlier on Friday evening.
