WAVERLY, Iowa - The Rockford College men's basketball team opened with one of the toughest tests that it will face all season when it played the Grinnell College Pioneers on Friday night. In addition to being a very talented team, the Pioneers have a fast paced and unique style of play subbing players in every couple of minutes, hoisting a very large amount of three-point attempts, and their constant ball pressure can be very difficult for a team to play against. Rockford was able to take advantage of the Pioneer pressure outscoring Grinnell 76-34 in the paint; However, Grinnell was able to take 61 three-point attempts making 18 more shots from beyond the arc than Rockford. Unfortunately the Regents ended up in a shootout with the Pioneers and were not able to keep up losing 130-101.

Rockford had four players end up in double-figures on Friday led by junior transfer Scott Suchy (Genoa, Ill./Genoa-Kingston). Suchy was very impressive in his Regents debut, going 12-19 from the floor and scoring a game-high 30 points. Suchy also added 6 rebounds and 1 assist to round out his evening. Junior Tory Minnifield (Blue Island, Ill./Eisenhower) was the other Rockford starter to score in double-digits. Minnifield, in his first game back after a season-ending injury last year, scored 10 points with 6 rebounds and 1 assist. Freshman Nik Crowell (Madison, Ala./Columbia) and sophomore Travis Hawkins (Newman, Ill./Shiloh) each played very well off the bench on Friday. Crowell's 20 points was the most of any bench player in Friday's game. The freshman was 8-11 from the field and 4-5 from the free throw line. Hawkins was 4-7 from the floor scoring a career-high 10 points.

The Regents will now play in the consolation game on Saturday against Wartburg College. Wartburg also lost its opening game of the tournament, falling 74-65 to Crown College. The Regents will look to improve upon their 2-3 record against Wartburg College when the game tips off at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday.