MILWAUKEE, Wis. - The Rockford University men's basketball team earned itself a hard fought win on Saturday afternoon on the road against the Wisconsin Lutheran College Warriors. With the win the Regents improve to 7-2 overall and 4-2 in Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference play. Rockford currently sits in fourth place in the NACC.
After a slow start to the first half, Rockford led and was in control nearly the entire remainder of the game. Senior Scott Suchy (Genoa, Ill./Genoa-Kingston) gave the Regents their first lead of the day at 12-11 when he connected on a jumper with 12:49 remaining in the first half. The two schools would then go back and forth until Marlon Sykes (Chicago, Ill./John Marshall) made a layup to give his team a lead they would not surrender until very late in the game. The Regents closed the first half on a 24-10 run and entered halftime with a 42-26 lead.
Rockford would continue to build on that lead in the opening moments of the second half until it reached a game-high 22 points after senior Phil Andrade (South Chicago Heights, Ill./Bloom Trail) drained a 3-point basket with 17:37 remaining. However, it was at that point that the Warriors would slowly but surely chip away at the lead. After Wisconsin Lutheran had brought the lead down under 10 points, Rockford was able to push its lead back up to double-digits at the 6:27 mark when David Dixon (Bellwood, Ill./St. Joseph) hit a jump shot. Over the next 5 minutes and 38 seconds, the Regents went cold from the field missing all seven of its field goal attempts and making just two of its five free throw attempts allowing the Warriors to grab a 71-70 lead with under a minute remaining. Desperately needing a bucket, Phil Andrade made the biggest play of the day for Rockford when he grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back up and into the basket to give his a 72-71 lead. The Regents then secured the win at the free throw line over the final 30 seconds to defeat the Warriors 76-72.
Senior forward Phil Andrade had his name written all over the closing moments of the game. With the Regents down one point, he secured a rebound on the defensive end of the floor just prior to his offensive rebound and putback basket on the other end of the court. On Wisconsin Lutheran's next offensive possession, Andrade provided good help defense to force a Warrior turnover. Andrade finished the game with 11 points on 4-for-8 shooting including knocking down 2 of his 3 three-point attempts. He also added 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocked shots to round out his evening.
Fellow starters David Dixon, Scott Suchy and Zach Wallace (Rockford, Ill./Belvidere) all scored in double figures as well. Dixon had a team-high 18 points and 13 rebounds. It was Dixon's fourth double-double so far this season. Suchy finished the game 13 points with 4 rebounds and 1 blocked shot. Wallace added 10 points on 4-for-7 shooting along with 4 rebounds.
Rockford got a huge boost of the bench from center Ronald Farmer-Blanchard (Chicago, Ill./Thornton). Farmer-Blanchard scored 7 points and had 12 rebounds including 7 offensive rebounds.
The Regents return to the court on Saturday, December 21st at home against Edgewood College. Tip-off is set for 2:00 p.m.
