By: The Pioneers and their infamous offense overwhelmed IC on Tuesday night. Grinnell buried 23-of-47 shots from behind the arc in the win.
Box Score GRINNELL, Iowa – The Grinnell Pioneers entered Tuesday night's game sorely in need of a win in order to keep pace in a crowded race for one of the last spots in the Midwest Conference Tournament. Utilizing their full-court, five-in, five-out offense, the Pioneers got exactly what they hoped for, racing past the Illinois College men's basketball team by a score of 113-74. Grinnell drained nearly half of its 47 three-point attempts in the game while improving to 9-8 (7-5 MWC). The Blueboys saw their two-game winning streak snapped as they fell to 3-14 (2-10 MWC).
A total of 19 players saw the court for Grinnell on the night. Luke Yeager led all scorers with 25 points off the bench, while Jack Taylor added 18.
Cody Hildebrand was the high point man for the Blueboys with 18, while
Brandon Fishburn chipped in with 12.
The tone for the game was set early on. In just over four minutes, Grinnell opened the game on a 17-2 run that put Illinois College on its heels right from the start. After a timeout to quell the Pioneer momentum, the Blueboys were able to figure out how to handle the system and got all the way back to within a point at 23-22 after a
Brad Herrmann three-pointer with 10:29 to go until halftime.
In true Grinnell fashion, a 14-0 run followed IC's brief resurgence and the Pioneers would go to the locker rooms with a 53-35 advantage.
The Pioneers had a good shooting performance in the first half. In the second half, they had a great shooting performance. As a team, Grinnell made 20-of-34 field goals after halftime, and half of those makes came from behind the arc. No offensive heroics could have pulled the Blueboys back into the game against that type of shooting, and the Pioneers saw their lead grow throughout the second half.
Illinois College will try to shake off this game and return to its recent form when it takes on Cornell College on Jan. 31. The Blueboys and Rams will meet at 5 p.m. in Mount Vernon, Iowa.
