ROCKFORD, Ill.- The Rockford University men's team continued to play well to start the season as they faced the Eureka Red Devils in a non-conference game Saturday afternoon at the Seaver Center. Eureka came in 0-3 on the season but those losses included a game against a Division I opponent and a loss in over-time. Rockford beat Concordia University Chicago earlier in the week in their first conference game of the season. Eureka lead for the early part of the game before Rockford took the lead midway through the first half. Despite Rockford leading for most of the game things were not decided until the last minutes of the game.
Marlon Sykes (Chicago, Ill./John Marshall) started the game off for the Regents with a 3 pointer but Rockford falls into an early 7-3 hole two minutes into the game. Scott Suchy (Genoa, Ill./Genoa-Kingston) makes two free throws to tie the game at 11 with 15 minutes left in the first half. Suchy again ties the game, this time at 16, after hitting a three pointer with 13 minutes left in the first half. A minute later Phil Andrade (South Chicago Heights, Ill./Bloom Trail) makes a layup to give the Regents their first lead in the game. Eureka ties things back up at 21 a short time later but David Dixon (Bellwood, Ill./St. Joseph) hits two free throws to put the Regents back up by two. Eureka hits a three at the 9:08 mark to go up one but then commits a foul on Ronald Farmer-Blanchard (Chicago, Ill./Thornton). He makes the first free throw and misses the second but he gets the rebound and dishes it out to Andrade who hits a big three to put the Regents up three. It would be the last time Eureka led or the game was tied. Suchy makes a tip-in off a Dixon missed layup which puts the Regents up nine with six minutes left to play in the first half. Rockford continued to make their shots and play great defense and Suchy makes two free throws to put Rockford up by 15 with two and a half minutes left to play in the first half. Eureka hits a three with two minutes left to score the last points of the half, bringing the half-time score 47-34 Rockford. Sykes led the Regents with 13 points in the first half followed closely behind by Suchy with 10. Rockford shot 50% from the field and behind the line in the half while they held Eureka to 40% and 39%.
Eureka started the second half with an 18-8 run and was down 57-52 with 15:30 minutes left in the game. Sykes then hit a big three with 14 minutes left in the game to give Rockford some life. Eureka answers by making two free throw shots to bring the score 60-54 in favor of Rockford. Dixon answers by making a tip-in off of his own shot. Mario Hicks (Orlando, Fla./Trinity Prep) then hits a huge three off of a nice double pass from Sykes and Suchy to put the Regents up 65-55 with 11:30 left in the game. The fouls continue to mount on both sides as Arthur Miller IV (Burlington, Wis./Burlington) knocks down two free throws to put Rockford up 67-56 with 10:15 left in the game. Eureka and Rockford continued to battle with Eureka slowly eating away at Rockford's lead. Dixon, on the bench for much of the second half to this point due to foul trouble, comes back into the game and immediately gets fouled and he makes both of his shots to put Rockford up 77-69 with 7 minutes left in the game. After a Eureka three Dixon once again scores, this time on a layup. Taking advantage of a Eureka turnover, Suchy makes a big layup with 3:50 left in the game to put Rockford up 87-78. He follows it up with another fade away two to put Rockford up 89-78 with 3 minutes left in the game. On the very next Rockford possession it's Suchy once again with another layup. Eureka then gets fouled on a three pointer and makes all three free throws, bringing the score 93-83 Rockford with a 1:45 left in the game. Freshman Zach Wallace (Rockford, Ill./Belvidere) hits two clutch free throws to put Rockford up 97-87 in the game with 40 seconds left and Rockford held on for the 101-96 win.
Suchy was the hot hand in the second half with top scorer Dixon out for much of the half with foul trouble. He finished with 35 points, including 25 in the second half, on 10 of 16 shooting and 13 of 14 from the line. He also had 8 rebounds. Sykes added in 17 points on 6 of 8 shooting and he also had 5 assists. Dixon and Wallace also reached double digit scoring with 15 and 11 points, respectively. Rockford shot 51% from the line and 46% from the three point line. They were out rebounded 35 to 44 but committed seven less turnovers finishing with nine overall.
The Regents next game is on Wednesday, November 27th at 1:00 p.m. at Blackburn. The team's next NACC game is at MSOE on Saturday, November 30th at 2:00 p.m.
