By: After building a 13-point halftime lead, Illinois College survived a last-second three-point attempt to earn the 73-71 victory.
Box Score
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – Cornell College overcame a 13-point halftime deficit but drew only iron on its attempted buzzer-beater, as the Illinois College men's basketball team hung on for the 73-71 victory in Saturday's Midwest Conference contest. Illinois College improved to 5-10 (2-8 MWC). Cornell fell to 6-9 (4-6 MWC).
Things didn't start quickly for Illinois College. The Blueboys went more than two minutes without scoring and nearly three minutes before
Mason Speer rolled in an elbow jumper for the IC's first field goal. After taking a brief lead on a
Mitchell Patterson layup, Illinois College fell behind, 15-9, with nine minutes gone.
Payton Dugan got the Illinois College offense into gear with a rebound on one end and a finish on the other. That was followed by three-pointers from
Sean McDonald,
Tim Schappaugh and
David Bauer, as well as a Bauer put-back layup for a 13-0 run to make it 22-15. After Cornell was able to make a free throw and stop its scoring drought, Speer hit another three-pointer and the IC lead was nine, 25-16. The lead grew to as much as 14 points after Speer connected on another triple, and the Blueboys were comfortably in command as the game reached halftime with the home team ahead, 38-25.
Cornell was on the comeback trail almost immediately in the second half. The Rams scored on the opening possession after halftime and a three-point play by Grant Anderson with exactly 10 minutes to play made it 54-47 in favor of Illinois College. After Corey Davis closed the Rams to within three,
Sean McDonald nailed a three-pointer to up the lead back to 57-50.
Dom Aiello then had four straight and Patterson connected from deep, keeping the Blueboys in front, 64-58.
With the Illinois College lead down to 65-62, Patterson made a steal and went the length of the court for a rim-rattling breakaway dunk, giving IC a two-possession lead. Cornell refused to go away, and four straight points brought the Rams to within one, 67-66. The Blueboys tried a baseball pass for a quick bucket, but Dugan's layup was blocked away. It turned out to be a fortunate sequence of events, as Dugan would seconds later take a pass from Schappaugh and knock down a triple from the corner to build IC back to a 70-66 advantage. Following a Cornell turnover, Schappaugh buried a three off of a Speer assist and the Blueboys looked to be in command at 73-66 and only 75 seconds remaining.
Cornell went down the floor quickly and Grant Anderson was able to knock in a triple, making it 73-69. After the Blueboys missed the front end of a one-and-one, Jon Anderson scored inside with 42 seconds left and IC's lead was once again back down to two. With time ticking down, Patterson had a three-point attempt just before the shot clock expired draw iron and Cornell took possession needing a two to tie or a three to win. Coming out of the timeout, Cornell's Brad Hund secured the long inbounds pass and handed off to Grant Anderson. Anderson was fading to his right as he shot from the left wing and his three-pointer barely grazed iron before Schappaugh rebounded it and time expired to give the Blueboys the two-point victory.
Five players ended in double-figures on the day for IC. Patterson had 16 points along with six rebounds. McDonald hit all four of his three-pointers and scored 12 points. Speer had 11, while Bauer came off the bench and had 10. Dugan also ended with 10, adding 10 rebounds for his first double-double of the season. For Cornell, Davis led all scorers with 26. Jon Anderson had 20 and Grant Anderson ended with 18. The other five Rams who saw the floor combined for just seven points.
Illinois College will travel north to take on Lake Forest College on Jan. 25. Tip-off will be at 7:30 p.m. following the conclusion of the women's game.
