By: Ahead by 10 at the half, Illinois College was outscored 43-24 in the second half to fall to the Vikings.
Box Score
APPLETON, Wis. – After one half of effective if not electric basketball by the Illinois College men's basketball team, things went south for the Blueboys and Lawrence University dug out of a 10-point halftime deficit to come away with a 63-54 win on Saturday afternoon. The Vikings remain in the thick of the Midwest Conference race at 6-6 (6-2 MWC) while IC slips to 3-10 (0-8 MWC).
The offense was carried by
Mason Speer in the opening minutes. The sophomore guard scored the first 11 points of the game for the Blueboys and his three-pointer gave Illinois College an 11-9 lead with 12:26 to play in the first half.
Tim Parks and
David Bauer each hit a free throw to grow the lead to four points and then
Mitchell Patterson hit a three to give IC a 16-9 advantage at the midway point of the half.
Speer continued to pour in points, ending with 17 of his 22 points in the first half. His final bucket before halftime gave the Blueboys a 28-17 lead with 3:25 to go and a short jumper by Patterson made it 30-20 at the break.
It didn't take long for Lawrence to show it was going to come back strong. The Vikings knocked down seven three-pointers in the first five minutes of the second half, the last of which made it a 41-36 game in favor of the home team.
Illinois College scratched its way back into it, scoring five straight on a
Max Stutsman jumper and Patterson three-ball to knot the score at 41-41, but the offense went silent after that. For more than 11 minutes, IC failed to connect on a field goal, scoring all of its points at the free-throw line. A Speer three-pointer somehow kept the Blueboys within striking distance at 57-52 with just over a minute left, but Lawrence was able to hang on by hitting free throws to close it out.
Speer ended with 22 points on the afternoon, while Patterson chipped in 15 points and eight rebounds. Stutsman matched Patterson with eight rebounds and also had seven points. Parks had six points and six rebounds off the bench.
Illinois College closes out its three-game road trip with a Jan. 18 matchup at Knox College. Tip-off in Galesburg, Ill. is set for 7:30 p.m.
