WEBSTER GROVES, Mo. – The Illinois College men's basketball team looked impressive in its 2019-20 season opener on Friday night, dominating the second half and pulling away from Webster University for a 77-55 road victory.
IC ended the night at 50 percent (13-of-26) from three-point range and the Blueboys came out on fire.
Deandre Enoch scored the first five points of the night for Illinois College and the team then proceeded to hit five three-pointers in the first nine minutes, capped by a triple from
Justin Kellogg to take a 24-8 lead on the Gorloks.
A stretch of sloppy play late in the first half allowed Webster to get back in it, taking a 31-30 lead before
Trevor Otten nailed Illinois College's seventh three of the half to make it 33-31 at the break.
Both teams came out of the locker rooms hitting everything in sight. Illinois College then began to lock down on defense while the offense stayed as hot as ever. The Blueboys ended the second half shooting better than 62 percent as a team while the Gorloks cooled off and ended at 30 percent in the half. One critical stretch of play came when IC went on a 7-0 run in just over two minutes.
Tre Rogers started it off with a three-pointer, followed by a spin and score from
Trae Robinson III. Rogers finished the run with another layup to increase IC's lead from 50-44 up to 57-44 with 11 minutes left.
Webster could never slice the Illinois College lead back into single-digits the rest of the way. As time ticked away in the game, the Blueboy lead grew all the way up to 25 points when Enoch sank a last-second three-pointer, Rogers scored on an acrobatic layup and
Jake Mazrimas scored on a tip-in, pushing the lead to 77-52 with just over two minutes left.
Rogers led IC on the night with 19 points and six assists. Enoch added 13 points and four assists. Behind a double-double of 16 points and 15 points from Mazrimas, the Blueboys had a 40-29 edge in rebounds over Webster.
The Blueboys come home to Sherman Gymnasium for their home opener at 3 p.m., hosting #7 Washington University in St. Louis.
