By: Illinois College led by seven at the break and by as many as nine in the second half before the Fighting Scots overwhelmed the Blueboys.
Box Score
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College men's basketball team looked like they might pull away for the victory early in the second half, but Monmouth College began to impose its will on the Blueboys, forcing 10 turnovers and shooting nearly 70 percent from the floor after halftime to nab the 95-77 win. The Fighting Scots move to 7-2 (4-0 Midwest Conference), while IC falls to 4-4 (0-4 MWC).
The first half was a back-and-forth battle much of the way until Illinois College began to assert itself in the closing minutes with an 8-0 run to take a seven-point lead at the break. Brady Hays splashed in a three-pointer two minutes into the game to give IC its first lead at 5-4. Monmouth would come back to lead, 11-8, before a 10-2 surge from the Blueboys highlighted by an alley-oop out-of-bounds play and a pair of threes from
Tim Parks and
Sean McDonald.
Lamont Mitchell came back with five straight points to knot the score at 18-18, but Illinois College went inside to establish a six-point cushion. Parks took a feed from Isaac Collins and finished through contact for a 22-20 lead, and that was followed by similar buckets from Hays and
Riley Dugan to make it 26-20. Undeterred, the Fighting Scots came back with a 9-2 run to take a 29-28 lead with under four minutes remaining in the half, prompting an Illinois College timeout.
After that stoppage in play, the teams traded points until the score was 35-34 in favor of Monmouth with just under two minutes to play in the first half. Hays gave Illinois College a one-point edge with a pair of free throws, and after getting a stop, McDonald converted a three-point play for a 39-35 lead. The next time down the floor, Dugan had a block and
David Bauer threw a full-court pass to Hays for the finish. Bauer would get an offensive rebound and make one of two at the line just before the buzzer to give IC a 42-35 advantage after 20 minutes.
The second half began with a three-pointer from D.J. Swift, but
Max Stutsman pivoted in the post to score and then canned an open three after a behind-the-back pass from
Mason Speer to give Illinois College its largest lead of the game, 47-38. The reply from Monmouth was immediate, as Swift connected on two more three-pointers as part of a 9-0 run that tied the game at 47-47 before Speer gave IC one last lead on a triple to make it 50-47.
Two straight buckets from Mitchell put the Scots on top, 53-52, and from that point on the lead only grew larger. Over a span of about 10 minutes from when the Blueboys went up, 52-49, on a Hays layup, Monmouth outscored Illinois College 39-10. The lead crested at 88-62 with just over five minutes to play, and the IC bench was able to get the margin a little closer as Collins,
Azzy Hill and
Mike Stimac all scored late.
Speer ended with a team-high 18 points, while Hays had 13 and McDonald added 12 points and seven rebounds. Swift led the Scots in scoring with 22, all in the second half.
Illinois College returns to action on Dec. 29 and 30 with a two-day tournament at Bluffton University in Ohio. The first game of the tournament for the Blueboys will be on Dec. 29 at 1 p.m. against the University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg.
