JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College men's basketball team stormed back from a 12-point deficit with less than eight minutes remaining on Saturday evening and took a late lead on Millikin University before the Big Blue hit two late free throws to seal a 67-66 victory over the Blueboys. The loss sends IC to 2-3 on the season.
The first half opened with both sides looking evenly-matched. The score was 7-7 with five minutes gone before Illinois College went on a 7-0 run to make the game's first big move.
Jaxson Dian started it with a three and buckets from
Tyler Jowett and
Tre Rogers followed to give IC a 14-7 lead at the midway point of the first half.
The game then turned into a battle of runs. Millikin came back with a 10-0 answer to lead 17-14 before the Blueboys responded with an 8-0 run of their own to make it 22-17. The first half's biggest cheer might have been when
Trae Robinson III hit his second career three-pointer to give Illinois College a 27-24 lead and a Dian three-pointer before the break made it 30-29 in favor of IC at the half.
The lead see-sawed back and forth between the two teams for much of the second half before Millikin unleashed a huge run. Trailing, 46-42, the Big Blue went on an 18-2 spurt and led by 12, 60-48, with just under eight minutes remaining.
Robinson III sparked the comeback by the Blueboys with a three-point play out of a timeout and two deep triples from
Isaac Collins pulled Illinois College back to within three at 64-61 with 2:40 left. With under one minute left in the game, Rogers worked his way inside for consecutive jumpers, giving IC a 66-65 lead.
Millikin had two timeouts remaining and used one after crossing halfcourt. Out of the timeout, the Big Blue had nothing going and used their final timeout with less than eight seconds left. After inbounding the ball, Calvin Fisher made a move into the paint and was fouled with 3.2 seconds left on the clock. He calmly sank both ends of a one-and-one. Rogers got upcourt quickly but his desperation three was too hard off the glass and Millikin escaped with the one-point win.
Robinson III led Illinois College with 15 points.
Jake Mazrimas had 14 points. Rogers added 13 points and a team-high eight boards.
The Blueboys are now off until the beginning of Midwest Conference play. IC opens on the road, going to Monmouth College on Dec. 4 for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off.
