By: Ty Sabin had 35 of Ripon’s 73 points in a 73-62 win for the Red Hawks on Saturday.
Box Score
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College men's basketball team dug itself a hole early on and nearly came back from it, before Ripon College, powered by the offense of the nation's leading scorer, pulled away for a 73-62 victory. The Blueboys drop to 7-14 (4-12 Midwest Conference) while Ripon ups its mark to 16-5 (13-3 MWC).
Ty Sabin was up to his usual tricks on Saturday. The leading Division III scorer in the country came in averaging 29.6 points per game and ended with 35, 20 of which came in the second half. After Sabin opened the game with a long jumper for a 2-0 lead,
Mitchell Patterson went to the line and tied it up at 2-2. The Red Hawks then scored 11 straight with Sabin acting as only a supporting figure in the run with a three-pointer.
After falling behind by double-digits, Illinois College came back with a three-pointer by
Tim Schappaugh and a pair of
David Bauer free throws. Ripon maintained a comfortable lead throughout much of the first half, but IC closed to within a point at 29-28 after an 8-0 run ended with a Bauer layup. Sabin and
Max Stutsman traded points to make it 31-30, but the Stutsman bucket with just under three minutes until halftime was the last field goal of the half for the Blueboys and a 9-0 run by the Red Hawks made it 40-30 at the break.
The second half started with an alley-oop layup from Patterson to
Mason Speer to make it an eight-point game, 40-32. Sabin then got Ripon rolling with seven points in a 9-0 run to increase the Red Hawk edge to 49-32. From that point on, the Blueboys could get no closer than 11 points. With the score 63-52, another 8-0 run by Ripon pushed the lead to 71-52 with less than four minutes left and sealed the game.
Bauer was the leading scorer on the day for the Blueboys with 12 points. Schappaugh ended with 11 points and Speer had 10 points and a game-high five assists. On Senior Day at Sherman Gym,
Payton Dugan had four points and
Brad Herrmann added a late three.
Illinois College closes out its home schedule on Feb. 14 with a 7:30 p.m. game against Monmouth College.
