By: After playing to a 37-37 tie through 20 minutes, Illinois College went on a big run early in the second half and never looked back.
Box Score
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College men's basketball team snapped a four-game losing streak thanks to a dominating second half, breaking open a tie game and halftime and emerging with an 86-70 win on Wednesday night over Knox College. The Blueboys improve their mark to 7-9 (2-7 Midwest Conference) on the season, sending Knox to 3-13 (1-8 MWC).
Illinois College played from behind throughout much of the first half after the Prairie Fire started out with a 4-0 lead.
Max Stutsman finally got the Blueboys on the board two minutes in and
Sean McDonald connected from three for IC's first lead just before the three-minute mark.
Knox answered back with a 7-0 burst to go up, 11-5, but Brady Hays hit consecutive three-pointers and Stutsman went inside for back-to-back buckets to tie the score at 15-15. In the next few minutes, the Prairie Fire would go on top before Illinois College responded to tie the score. The IC offense eventually hit the skids and Knox used that brief offensive drought from the Blueboys to establish a 31-24 advantage.
Coming out of a timeout,
Tim Parks sliced the deficit to four on a three-pointer and Hays made his third of the half to make it 31-30. With less than three minutes until halftime,
Riley Dugan hung in the air and scored on a layup to briefly give Illinois College the lead, but Knox came back with a pair of three-pointers to go up, 37-34. On IC's final possession of the half, Parks swished in the team's eighth triple of the opening 20 minutes to send the teams to the break knotted at 37-37.
As the second half began, it was once again a case of Knox scoring and Illinois College answering back to tie. A Hays three put IC up, 44-43, before the Prairie Fire took the lead back on two free throws from Blake Godbold with 17:13 remaining. That's when it all fell apart for the visitors.
A Parks three-pointer gave Illinois College a 47-45 lead and the Blueboys wouldn't come close to relinquishing it the rest of the way. Stutsman extended the lead to 49-45 and an offensive rebound and putback from
Azzy Hill upped the margin to six. Late in the shot clock,
David Bauer rebounded a Hill miss and scored just before the buzzer, forcing a Knox timeout with the score 53-45 and 14:47 to play.
The timeout wasn't effective for Knox, as Bauer kept the run going with another three-pointer, followed by a three-point play from
Mason Speer. Finally, a steal and breakaway layup from McDonald stretched the run to 17-0 and gave the Blueboys a 61-45 edge.
The run finally did come to an end, but IC continued to pile on. Two free throws from Hill gave the Blueboys their largest lead of the game, 77-55, with 8:08 remaining. Down the stretch, Knox could get no closer than 16 points, allowing Illinois College to clear its bench and enjoy the final minutes of the 86-70 win.
Parks and Hays each ended the night with 18 points, while McDonald tacked on 15. Stutsman ended the game with eight points and 10 rebounds, helping the Blueboys out-rebound Knox by a 38-27 margin. For the third game in a row, Speer ended with nine assists.
Illinois College looks to nab another MWC win on Jan. 20, traveling to Mount Vernon, Iowa to take on Cornell College at 3 p.m.
