RIVER FOREST, Ill. - The Rockford College men's basketball team's 2012-13 season came to an end in the quarterfinals of the Northern Athletics Conference Tournament at the hand of the Dominican University Stars. The Regents and Stars had split their two regular season meetings with each team winning on the road and both games being decided by three points or less. Saturday's game was no different as the two squads were fairly evenly matched and once again the game came down to the final minute of play.
Rockford once again got off to a slow start as Dominican jumped out to a 12-4 lead just under 9 minutes into the first half. The Stars held onto their advantage and eventually increased it to a game-high 9-points with eight minutes left in the half. Rockford then caught fire and slowly chipped away at the Dominican lead. Junior guard Scott Suchy (Genoa, Ill./Genoa-Kingston) got the Regents started scoring 5 points in less than 30 seconds forcing the Stars to take a timeout to regroup. Junior forward David Dixon (Bellwood, Ill./St. Joseph) then took hold of the reins scoring 8 of the Regents next 11 points and tying the game for the first time at 22 with 3:32 left before halftime. Senior guard Grant Olsen (DeKalb, Ill./DeKalb) then scored the final four points of Rockford's 19-8 run to close the half and give his team a 26-24 halftime lead.
The opening minutes of the second half went back and forth until each team found itself with at least a two-possession lead. The Regents grabbed their biggest lead of the afternoon at the 11:28 mark when freshman guard John O'Bryan (Richmond, Ky./Madison Central) connected on his second straight 3-point attempt to put Rockford up 7. The Stars shot right back at the Regents going on a 16-3 run over the next five minutes to grab a 6 point lead, their largest of the half. Rockford began to chip away at the lead until Scott Suchy put his team up by one with 74 seconds remaining. However, the Stars scored on their next possession to regain the lead and then drove in the dagger when they hit just their second three of the half with nine seconds remaining giving them a four point lead. Rockford scored as time expired but it was not enough as Dominican advanced to the semifinals with a 64-62 win.
Scott Suchy scored 16 points on 5-12 shooting including 2-4 from behind the arc. Suchy finishes the season as the second leading scorer in the Northern Athletics Conference averaging 17.6 points per game. He also ends his season with the 9th best free throw percentage in the NAC hitting 77.6 percent of his attempts.
David Dixon recorded his 5th double-double in just 17 games this season. Dixon scored a game-high 20 points and grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds on Saturday. The junior also tied his season-high with 3 blocked shots and is currently 10th in the NAC with 18 blocks.
In the final game of his collegiate career, senior Grant Olsen narrowly missed a double-double. Olsen scored 8 points with 9 rebounds while recording 2 steals.
The Regents finish their 2012-13 season with an 8-18 record.
