FOND DU LAC, Wis. - The Rockford University men's basketball team hit the road on Saturday looking to work its way back up the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference standings by knocking off conference leader Marian University. This is the second time the two schools have faced each other this season with the Sabres winning the first meeting 78-70 back on December 7th in Rockford.
The game began with the two teams trading baskets early in the first half. The opening eight plus minutes saw 6 lead changes and 3 ties as each team tried to establish control. Rockford sophomore John O'Bryan (Richmond, Ky./Madison Central) gave his team its largest lead of the day when he connected on a 3-point basket at the 13:09 mark to put the Regents up 15-11. The Sabres promptly answered with a 9-0 run and forced a Regent timeout. It turned out to be a well-placed timeout as Rockford would twice make it a one-point game over the next four minutes. Junior big man Ronald Farmer-Blanchard (Chicago, Ill./Thornton) sparked the Regents offense scoring the team's next 4 points and cutting in the Sabre lead as he connected on back-to-back layups. Senior David Dixon (Bellwood, Ill./St. Joseph) then twice cut it to a one-point deficit. The first time came after a made tip-in and then Dixon again chopped it to one after knocking down a jumper to make it a 24-23 game. However that would be as close as the Regents would get as the Sabres then went on a 13-0 run over the next three and a half minutes to gain control of the game and take a take a 40-29 lead into the half.
The second half was a bit of struggle for Rockford as it was never able to get the deficit under 10 points. However, the Regents did get big second half performances from both its starting guards. Senior Scott Suchy (Genoa, Ill./Genoa-Kingston) poured in 11 of his 16 points in the final twenty minutes. The senior made 4-of-7 shot attempts including draining Rockford's only three-point basket of the half. Junior guard Marlon Sykes (Chicago, Ill./John Marshall) scored all 12 of his points in the second half. Sykes scored Rockford's final 9 points on the Regents' 9-3 run to close the game, but it was not enough as Rockford fell 83-70 to the Marian.
In addition to the big second half scoring performances from Suchy and Sykes, Rockford also got double-digit scoring efforts from David Dixon and Ronald Farmer-Blanchard. Dixon recorded his seventh double-double of the season pouring in 14 points and grabbing a season-high 16 rebounds. Farmer-Blanchard hit double-figures for the second straight game as he scored 10 points and collected 7 rebounds coming off the bench.
The men's basketball team returns to the court on Tuesday, January 14th at home against Benedictine University. Tip-off is at 7:00 p.m. in the Seaver Center.
