By: Illinois College owned the second half on Wednesday night, turning a two-point halftime lead into a 23-point victory.
Box Score JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – It was a game two months in the making. The growth of this young Illinois College men's basketball team has been evident throughout the season, but it unfortunately hasn't manifested itself in the win column. That changed on Wednesday night, as the Blueboys suffocated Knox on the defensive end in the second half and surged to an 87-64 win over the Prairie Fire. IC ups its season record to 2-13 (1-9 MWC), dropping Knox to 4-11 (2-8 MWC).
The win might not have been possible if not for the play of
Cody Hildebrand early on in the contest. The freshman guard ended the night with 29 points, but it was his 16 first-half points that were crucial in keeping the game close when Knox came out firing. With the score tied at 8-8, Hildebrand scored on four successive trips for Illinois College, yet at the end of that stretch, the score remained tied at 16-16 as Knox had the answer for each field goal.
From there, the Prairie Fire embarked on a 10-0 to take a 26-16 lead after nine minutes. After a
Brad Herrmann steal,
Jacob Taylor was open for a corner triple and buried it, starting a 7-0 IC run to climb back into it. Knox maintained a lead until very late in the first half, when
Brandon Fishburn heated up from outside the arc. The senior had three three-pointers in the last five minutes of the half; his last one took the Blueboys into the locker room with a 46-44 edge.
Illinois College picked right up in the second half where it left off late in the first. Fishburn buried a three-pointer to open the scoring after 40 seconds of action and the next six points were all scored by Hildebrand, giving IC a 55-44 advantage. The lead remained 11 until Fishburn knocked in another triple and
Jacob Taylor followed with a tough, twisting layup on a fast break, opening up a 62-46 lead.
As the clock ticked down, Knox provided relatively little resistance. The Prairie Fire closed to within 11 points twice, but the lead would never again fall into single-digits. The fact that IC held Knox to just 9-of-31 from the floor after halftime assured that the cushion continued to grow as the game moved towards triple zeros.
Behind Hildebrand's 9-of-11 shooting, the Blueboys ended the night 31-of-60 (.517) from the field, the second-best shooting night of the season for IC. Fishburn ended with 17 points, making 5-of-9 from downtown and matching Knox's Caylab Herrera for game-high rebounding honors with six.
Mitchell Patterson was the other IC player to reach double-figures, scoring 13 and adding four boards.
Illinois College will try for two in a row when it is back in action on Saturday against Carroll University at Sherman Gymnasium. The tip between the Blueboys and Pioneers is set for 3 p.m. following the women's contest.
