By: A hot-shooting start staked IC to a nine-point lead at the half, but the Vikings responded with a big second half to win, 78-75.
Box Score
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College men's basketball team got off to a quick start from long-range, hitting nine threes in the first half. Those triples helped the Blueboys establish a 45-36 lead at halftime, but Lawrence University got rolling in the second half and held off IC for a 78-75 victory. The Vikings improved to 9-5 (5-3 Midwest Conference) and the Blueboys fell to 6-9 (1-7 MWC) in Head Coach
Mike Worrell's 500th game in charge of IC.
The afternoon opened with a 17-footer from
Max Stutsman and a
David Bauer three from the corner for a quick 5-0 lead inside of 40 seconds. Bauer's second three of the game made it 11-7, and, after Lawrence took a brief lead,
Tim Parks came off the bench to hit one and give the Blueboys a 14-12 advantage.
When Brady Hays corralled an offensive rebound and hit another triple, the Blueboys had connected on five of their first six three-pointers and held a 17-14 lead. Bauer gave IC the lead back with his third three of the opening half and Parks added a three-point play out of timeout to increase the margin to 23-17.
The big half for Parks continued as quick ball movement inside ended with a layup from the junior for a 30-24 lead. He was then fouled on a three-point attempt and made all three, then nabbed an offensive rebound and finished over Lawrence's height for a 35-26 lead. A transition three for Bauer, his fourth of the first half, made it 38-26 and forced the Vikings into a timeout.
Lawrence made a late push to get back into it, but Stutsman ended the half with a nice post move to keep the Blueboys on top, 45-36. Illinois College went 9-of-15 from deep in the first half, including four from Bauer (12 points) and one from Parks, who led all scorers at the break with 13 points.
Lawrence came out of halftime with a 6-0 run fueled by two three-pointers, and the score eventually would end up tied at 46-46. The Vikings took the lead again at 51-50 and extended their cushion to 56-50.
With the score 60-54, Parks was able to convert a three-point play while drawing the fourth foul on Quinn Fisher, cutting the deficit to three. He later had a steal and breakaway to make it 67-63. In transition,
Mason Speer later took a pass from
Sean McDonald and canned a three – IC's only one of the second half – to tie the game at 68-68 with 4:15 left.
Two free throws from Stutsman gave Illinois College a 70-68 edge with under four minutes to play, and a Speer pass to a driving Stutsman made it 73-72 in favor of the Blueboys with less than two minutes to go. With less than one minute to play, Bryce Denham scored on a drive to put Lawrence ahead by a point, and IC turned it over on the subsequent possession. Illinois College needed to go for a quick steal or a foul, but the Vikings ran a home-run play and Denham broke away from the pack for a dunk to make it a three-point lead for LU.
The lead grew to five points before Parks scored his 23rd and 24th points of the game, bringing Illinois College to within three points, 78-75, with 2.2 seconds left on the clock. On the inbounds pass, Bauer deflected it away and put up a three-pointer at the buzzer, but his momentum was taking him away from the basket and he couldn't get enough on the shot as time expired.
Parks' point total of 24 was a career high, eclipsing the 20 he scored in a win over Chatham University last season in Puerto Rico. Bauer and Stutsman each ended with 12 points, while
Riley Dugan had 10 points. Speer ended with nine points and had nine assists for the second game in a row.
Illinois College stays at home at Sherman Gymnasium on Jan. 17, hosting Knox College at 5:30 p.m.
