DE PERE, Wis. – The Illinois College men's basketball team couldn't keep up the momentum from Saturday's victory over Ripon, falling on the road to St. Norbert College on Wednesday, 96-67. The Green Knights took control with an early 15-0 run to go up by double-digits and never looked back, improving to a Midwest Conference-best 10-2 (5-0 MWC) while the Blueboys dropped to 4-8 (2-3 MWC).
The contest opened with a three-pointer from
Jake Mazrimas and
Deandre Enoch later gave Illinois College a 5-3 lead before St. Norbert went on its big run. The Green Knights took an 18-5 edge on the Blueboys before a triple from
Jaxson Dian was able to momentarily staunch the bleeding. The lead for the Green Knights went as high as 24 points in the first half before IC was able to close it out with buckets from
Trae Robinson III and
Tre Rogers to make it 50-31 at the break.
The 5-0 run to end the first half turned into a 10-0 run as Robinson III and Mazrimas added onto the Illinois College spurt to open the second half. The Blueboys were able to get as close as 11 points on a pair of free throws from
Tre Rogers with 13:40 remaining in the contest before St. Norbert began to pull away. The Green Knights almost doubled up IC from that point on, turning the 58-47 lead into a 96-67 final.
Dian was the leading scorer in the game for the Blueboys with 17. Rogers added 12 and Mazrimas had 11.
Illinois College is back home on Saturday, hosting Beloit College in Sherman Gymnasium at 1 p.m.
