DECATUR, Ill. – It took an extra five minutes, but the Illinois College men's basketball team remained unbeaten by outlasting Millikin, 81-77, in overtime on Wednesday at the Griswold Center.
The victory moved the Blueboys to 5-0 on the season while the Big Blue dropped to 2-3.
Jake Mazrimas pumped in a team-high 19 points, including drilling five 3pt. field goals, and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds for IC.
Ty Lenhardt added 18 points with 11 coming from the free throw line while
Buzz Ritzel scored 16 and was a perfect 10-for-10 from the line.
Matt Thompson came off the bench to add 15 points.
As it has in the past two games, the Blueboys came out of the gate playing well and used a 13-0 run to take a 10 point lead at 23-13 with 9:11 to play in the opening half. Â IC enjoyed another 10 point advantage (33-23) with 3:40 to go but Millikin was able to chip away, and the teams went into halftime tied at 35.
In the second half, IC enjoyed a seven-point advantage at 54-47 with 9:55 to play and that would be as big a lead as either team enjoyed in the final stanza. Millikin's Noah Livingston drilled a 3pt. field goal with 0:03 to play to send the game into overtime.
The teams traded the lead early in the overtime period before Ritzel drilled a pair of free throws with 0:19 to play to give IC the lead it never relinquished. After a Millikin miss and foul, Lenhardt drilled two free throws with 0:08 remaining to provide the final margin of victory.
IC will open the Midwest Conference portion of the season Tuesday when it travels to Mt. Vernon, Iowa to face Cornell College at 5:30 p.m.
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