BELOIT, Wis. – The Illinois College men's basketball team held on to defeat Beloit College, 73-70, on Saturday afternoon. The Blueboys led by 10 points with less than three minutes to play but had to fight off a strong finish from the Buccaneers to earn the win. IC improves to 4-10 (2-5 Midwest Conference) with the victory.
Illinois College jumped on top early with a 10-0 run to climb out of a 6-3 deficit.
Riley Mehrens started the game with a pair of three-pointers and
Trae Robinson III then gave the Blueboys the lead at 8-6. A three-point play from
Michael Adams gave IC a 13-6 lead with just short of five minutes gone in the contest.
Beloit rallied to take an 18-15 lead before a triple from
Trevor Otten tied the score at 18-18. After
Mason Speer hit one of two at the line, another Otten three-pointer made it 22-18. With the score 22-22, Illinois College went on a 6-0 run and a layup by Speer at the buzzer gave the Blueboys a 34-29 halftime lead.
The Buccaneers managed to come back and take the lead on a three-point play from Andrew Walters with five minutes gone in the second half, making it 44-41. Yet another Otten three-ball knotted the score at 44-44 and a Speer free throw a minute later gave Illinois College the lead for good.
With under eight minutes to go, Robinson III scored back-to-back buckets, giving IC a 62-53 lead. With under three minutes remaining, a Mehrens trey gave the Blueboys a 71-61 lead. From there, Illinois College would have to hold on as Beloit mounted a challenge behind Tristan Shoup. After he made one of two at the line on one trip, he later made a layup to shrink the IC lead to 71-64 with 1:13 to play. As the clock ticked towards 30 seconds remaining, a Shoup three-pointer made it 72-68. Wildermuth extended the lead to five by hitting one of two at the charity stripe and the Buccaneers pulled within three on a pair of free throws with three seconds to play. Though Wildermuth was fouled and missed two foul shots, a desperation heave at the final buzzer was off target and the Blueboys survived.
Mehrens led four Blueboys in double-figures on the day with 16 points. Otten, Robinson III and Speer all scored 12 points. Speer also led IC with eight rebounds and six assists. Wildermuth added nine points and seven boards.
Illinois College comes home to Sherman Gymnasium on Jan. 8 to host Grinnell College at 7:30 p.m.
