By: A Ty Sabin three-pointer in the final 10 seconds proved to be the difference on Saturday afternoon, lifting the Red Hawks to the victory.
Box Score JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College men's basketball team did a lot of things right on Saturday afternoon but the Blueboys fell victim to a problem that will plague many Ripon College opponents this season; finding a way to neutralize Ty Sabin. Sabin scored a game-high 34 points and hit what proved to be the decisive three-pointer in the final 10 seconds of play to give his Red Hawks a 67-63 win over IC in Sherman Gymnasium. Illinois College drops to 3-4 (1-3 Midwest Conference) with the loss, while Ripon improves to 5-2 (4-1 MWC).
Though matched up against a top-four MWC team from a year ago and a team widely expected to be near the top of the conference again in 2015-16, Illinois College never backed down against Ripon, and in fact proved to be one of the tougher opponents the Red Hawks have faced this season. Down by double-digits in the second half, the Blueboys fought to take the lead back with less than six minutes to play and tied the game inside of 20 seconds remaining before Sabin hit the game-winner.
More than six minutes went by in the first half before someone other than Sabin scored for the Red Hawks. A 4-0 lead by Illinois College flipped into a 5-4 Ripon advantage on two buckets from the junior guard, but
Cody Hildebrand canned two free throws, then outhustled the Red Hawk defense to score on his third opportunity to make it 8-5, followed by a breakaway dunk from
Mitchell Patterson to make it 10-5 at the 14:25 mark. With the contest knotted at 10-10, consecutive three-balls from
Tim Schappaugh and
Brad Herrmann gave IC its largest lead of the day at 16-10.
Dom Aiello gave the Blueboys a 20-15 edge with 7:16 to play in the opening half, but Ripon responded with an 8-0 run over the next four minutes of action to take a 23-20 lead before Schappaugh ended the dry stretch for IC with a driving layup. Hildebrand put Illinois College back on top with 30 seconds left in the first half, but Sabin ended with another three-pointer with time ticking down to give the Red Hawks a 28-26 lead at the break.
Having scored 16 of Ripon's 28 points in the first half, Sabin took it to another level early on in the second half. Justin Leistikow was fouled on Ripon's first possession and made two free throws, which were promptly answered by Patterson to make it 30-28 in favor of the visitors. The next nine points all belonged to Sabin, giving the Red Hawks a 39-28 lead with less than 17 minutes to play.
Methodically, the Blueboys began to work their way back into the game. A three-point play from Hildebrand got the lead back under double-digits and
Max Stutsman scored down low to make it 39-33. The lead was back to 10 when IC really made its move.
Mason Speer started it by going over the top of the Ripon defense to score on a putback. Herrmann then scored a layup on a
David Bauer feed and knocked in a three-pointer. A technical from the Ripon bench allowed Bauer to make one of two at the line and he later swished a three-pointer to cap an 11-0 run that gave the Blueboys a 47-46 advantage with 11 minutes remaining.
Once Illinois College caught Ripon, the game stayed close the rest of the way. IC's final lead came on a Hildebrand bucket inside with just over seven minutes left to give the Blueboys a 54-53 edge. Ripon's Jordan Stiede converted two free throws a minutes later to start a 6-0 burst from the Red Hawks that made it 59-54. Herrmann was fouled on the other end after a Brendan McCoy jumper and made one of two to finally end the run and the Blueboys got a critical stop on the other end, followed by a Hildebrand three-pointer to make it 59-58 with 3:22 to play.
Again, Ripon tried to pull away. The Red Hawks upped their lead to 63-58 on another McCoy jump shot, but Stutsman responded back with a three-pointer as the clock rolled under a minute. After McCoy missed a three-pointer late in the shot clock, Bauer was fouled on the rebound and made both freebies to knot it at 63-63 with 19 seconds left.
As was the case throughout, Ripon turned to its star player when it needed a score. Sabin let fly from downtown from the top of the key and rattled home the go-ahead basket with seven seconds left, making it 66-63. On the other end Schappaugh tried to tie it up, but missed off the front iron. Isaac Masters put the game away with a free throw with under a second to play for the final margin.
Sabin ended his day 12-of-18 from the field, including 6-of-7 from distance. Leistikow came off the bench for 10 points and a game-high nine rebounds for the Red Hawks.
Hildebrand led Illinois College with 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting. Herrmann and Patterson each had nine points and Schappaugh had eight for the Blueboys. Stutsman pulled in eight rebounds for IC.
The Blueboys will be off until a Dec. 22 road trip to face St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis. Tip-off that night is scheduled for 5 p.m.
