By: Grinnell made 24 three-pointers while IC managed only three in a 117-79 road win for the Pioneers.
Box Score
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Grinnell Pioneers had a good shooting night even by their own lofty standards, connecting on 24 three-pointers and pulling away early in the contest for a 117-79 win over the Illinois College men's basketball team. The Pioneers retain fourth place in the Midwest Conference, improving to 12-7 (9-5 MWC) while the Blueboys fall to 7-12 (4-10 MWC).
The game would prove to be evenly-played for about six minutes, before Grinnell went on a 10-0 run that opened up a 28-16 advantage. Early in the game, Illinois College was doing a good job of breaking Grinnell's press and getting quickly down the floor for easy buckets.
Payton Dugan had a three-point play to open the scoring for IC and
Max Stutsman was the main recipient of passes from Blueboy guards, scoring 16 of his 20 points before halftime.
Following a three-point play by
Mason Speer that made it 18-16 for Grinnell, the Pioneers scored 10 unanswered points to take a commanding lead. Illinois College hung close for much of the first half and were within six after a Stutsman layup made it 36-30 with 5:45 left until halftime. Grinnell closed the half out strong however, ending on a 23-11 stretch to go on top, 59-41. While the Pioneers were 13-of-29 from three-point range in the first 20 minutes, the Blueboys were just 1-of-10.
Illinois College needed to find a way to sink some threes if they were to dig out of the deficit in the second half, but the shooting woes continued as the Blueboys made only 2-of-15 from distance to end 3-of-25 for the game. Meanwhile, Grinnell scored the opening seven points of the half and would make 11 more three-pointers as it pulled ahead cruised to the win. After Jacob Ekstrand began the half with a three-pointer to give the Pioneers a 62-41 advantage, the Blueboys would never get closer than 20 points the rest of the way.
Besides Stutsman, Illinois College had two others reach double-figures as both Dugan and Speer scored 11 on the afternoon.
David Bauer and
Sean McDonald each scored nine off the bench. Speer ended with a game-high seven assists as well.
Illinois College returns to action on Feb. 8 with a road game at Beloit College. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m.
