By: Illinois College had a 9-2 lead after four minutes, but undefeated St. Norbert roared back for an 87-58 win on Wednesday night.
Box Score JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – Facing No. 18 St. Norbert on Wednesday night, the Illinois College men's basketball team stood toe-to-toe with its undefeated foe for the opening 10 minutes, but the incredible efficiency of the Green Knight offense proved to be too much for the Blueboys to withstand. A surge late in the first half put St. Norbert up by 19 at halftime and the Green Knights continued their best start in school history with an 87-58 win at Sherman Gymnasium. IC falls to 1-7 (0-5 Midwest Conference) after the defeat.
A neutral fan could have been excused for mistaking which team was ranked and which was still in search of its first conference victory early on in the game. Illinois College raced out to a 9-2 lead in the opening four minutes as St. Norbert misfired on its first four shots of the contest. On the other end, the iron was kind for
Mitchell Patterson to open the scoring with a short jumper. That was followed by a
Cody Hildebrand jump shot and a pair of field goals from
Max Stutsman to get IC out in front.
Once the Green Knights got rolling though, they were nearly impossible to stop. St. Norbert connected on 20 of its last 25 field goal attempts of the first half, erasing the early deficit and forcing the Blueboys into catch-up mode. Twice in the middle stages of the first half, IC was able to drain a three-pointer to close within a single point of the Green Knights, but eventually the shots stopped falling with the same frequency.
SNC's leading scorer, Andrew Schwoerer, was cold at the beginning of the game but accounted for seven points in less than a minute to up the Green Knights lead from 26-23 to 33-25 as the clock rolled under six minutes in the first half. Hildebrand hit a contested jumper in the paint to bring Illinois College back to within 11 points, 42-31, with 3:30 remaining in the half, only for St. Norbert to close on an 8-0 run to take a comfortable 50-31 lead at the intermission.
In the second half, Illinois College was able to pull just a little bit closer on three occasions, cutting the lead down to 58-40 with 14:33 remaining. St. Norbert took total command with a 9-0 run immediately after though, ending the Blueboy hopes on the night.
Stutsman was the leading scorer in the game for the Blueboys with 15 points, making 5-of-8 from the floor and knocking down 3-of-4 free throws. Hildebrand added nine points, as did
Brad Herrmann, who came off the bench and splashed in three three-pointers.
Illinois College will try to end its slide in non-conference play, as the team travels to the Lone Star State for a pair of games on Dec. 29 and 30. The trip begins with a matchup against Austin College in Sherman, Texas that tips off at 3 p.m.
