By: Illinois College enjoyed its best shooting night of the season, but Monmouth rallied past the Blueboys on Wednesday, 92-86.
Box Score JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The kind of offensive night that the Illinois College men's basketball team has been looking for since its season opener was on display on Wednesday night in Sherman Gymnasium, but despite a 53 percent shooting performance, the Blueboys were handed a 92-86 defeat by visiting Monmouth. The Scots escaped from a halftime deficit to improve to 8-3 (5-1 Midwest Conference), while IC drops to 1-11 (0-7 MWC).
After an even opening few minutes between the two teams, Monmouth embarked on a 15-2 run that ended with three straight three-pointers to take its largest lead of the night, 21-10, with 11:31 to go in the first half. It was the spark provided off the bench that would get the Blueboys back in it.
John Taylor ended the Scots run with post-up, then later added a jumper as part of a 10-0 run to get Illinois College back to within a single point. The Monmouth lead was three when
Brad Herrmann got into the game, snared an offensive rebound and then sank a three-pointer to knot the score at 25-25 with 6:23 remaining in the first half.
Cody Hildebrand was the high scorer in the first half, providing Illinois College with 11 points in the first 20 minutes. He followed Herrmann's shot with four straight points to cap a 19-4 spell from IC to take a 29-25 lead. The Blueboy halftime lead could have been more than three points if not for Nick Marema. The Monmouth reserve got his first action of the contest in the final 90 seconds before halftime and swished a pair of three-pointers to cut the IC advantage to 41-38.
Monmouth started the second half strong, taking a 58-49 lead on another Marema trey with 13:31 to go in the game. Coming out of a timeout,
Mitchell Patterson lobbed an inch-perfect pass to
Tim Schappaugh to finish at the rim. Schappaugh then converted the three-point play to signal another shift in momentum. Those three points were the beginnings of a 14-0 run from the Blueboys, a stretch that ended with consecutive three-pointers from
Brandon Fishburn at the top of the key.
The Scots pulled back ahead by a point, 73-72, then stretched the lead back to nine with an 8-0 run over three minutes that was helped along by a pair of Illinois College turnovers. In the late stages of the game, the Blueboys would dial up from distance to close the gap. Fishburn made it a five-point game with 2:43 remaining and Schappaugh would close it to an 87-83 game with a corner three with 12 seconds left.
After Monmouth made one of two at the line, Schappaugh drained another three-pointer with seven seconds left to cut the MC lead to just 88-86. On the inbounds however, IC was whistled for a technical foul for delay of game, effectively putting the game away as the Scots were awarded two free throws. A personal foul followed and Monmouth iced the game by connecting on all four of its chances in the closing seconds.
Schappaugh led all scorers, pouring in 18 second half points on his way to 27 for the night. Hildebrand and Fishburn each added 16.
John Taylor came off the bench for nine points.
Illinois College will face a two-game road trip that begins on Jan. 10 with a visit to Lake Forest College. The Blueboys and Foresters will meet at 3 p.m. following the conclusion of the women's game.
