By: The Green Knights extended their Midwest Conference winning streak to 58 games, scraping past the Blueboys on Saturday afternoon.
Box Score
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College men's basketball team hung tough with No. 10-ranked St. Norbert College on Saturday, but the Green Knights did just enough in the end to escape Sherman Gymnasium with a 63-52 victory. The Blueboys drop to 1-4 (0-3 Midwest Conference) on the year, while St. Norbert moves to 3-1 (2-0 MWC).
The opening minutes of the game didn't exactly inspire confidence for the Blueboys as it took more than five minutes for Illinois College to get on the board. In that time, St. Norbert had jumped out to a 10-0 lead on IC.
Mason Speer finally broke the drought with a steal and layup and
Mitchell Patterson followed with a short jumper.
Tim Parks then began to carry the offense, accounting for the next eight Illinois College points as the Blueboys rallied to within two points, 14-12, with eight minutes gone in the game.
At the 10:45 mark of the first half, St. Norbert's Ben Bobinski made a layup and was fouled, making the free throw to take a 17-12 lead. That three-point play would prove to be the last points scored for five full minutes. With the Green Knights ahead, 20-12, Patterson was fouled and made two free throws, breaking a nearly seven-minute scoring drought and pulling the Blueboys to within six. Late in the first half, Parks connected on another three-pointer to bring IC back within four at 27-23, but Taylor Penn connected on a trey with less than five seconds left in the half to make it a 30-23 contest.
Illinois College had the opening possession of the second half and Patterson powered inside to cut the St. Norbert lead back to five, but that was followed by a D.J. DeValk jumper and a layup from Tim Marshall to go up by nine. The Green Knights were ahead, 38-30, when
Max Stutsman stepped outside and knocked down a three to bring IC to within five points, but that would be the closest the Blueboys would get the rest of the way.
More than four minutes would go by before
Dom Aiello knocked down a corner jumper that made it 42-35 and the Green Knights steadily began to open the lead further. DeValk took over the scoring duties for St. Norbert, supplying seven out of nine in a stretch that saw the SNC take a 51-37 lead. As the clock rolled under seven minutes, Stutsman made a post jumper and
Payton Dugan knocked down a pair of free throws to pull within 10 points at 51-41.
As time continued to tick, the clock worked against the Blueboys. Two free throws from Dugan made it 54-46 with 4:10 left, but Penn nailed a three-pointer with three minutes left to put St. Norbert back up by double-digits, 57-46. Illinois College wouldn't get closer than seven points the rest of the way after that.
Parks led Illinois College on the night with 11 points, all of them coming in the first half. Patterson was the other Blueboy in double-figures with 10. Both Dugan and Stutsman ended with seven.
Illinois College continues its four-game home stand on Dec. 7, facing Lake Forest College at Sherman Gymnasium at 7:30 p.m.
