ROCKFORD, Ill.- Returning to their home court for the first time in eight days the Rockford University men's basketball team faced off against the Concordia University Chicago Cougars. Rockford won the team's first match up 87-79. David Dixon (Bellwood, Ill./St. Joseph) scored a season high 34 points against the Cougars in that game. The Regents looked to take advantage of the Cougars recent funk, who came into the game with a four game losing streak.
The teams hung close for the first five minutes of the game before Rockford began to pull away from Concordia Chicago. Scott Suchy (Genoa, Ill./Genoa-Kingston) made a layup off a fastbreak to put the Regents up 14-11. Suchy accounted for nine of the Regents first 14 points. Dixon then made layups on consecutive possessions to add to the lead. After a couple of traded baskets John O'Bryan (Richmond, Ky./Madison Central) hit a three-pointer to push the Regents lead to ten. With 9:51 left in the half Suchy hit a two-point jumper to bring Rockford's lead to 13, the largest of the half. The Cougars would battle back and cut the Regents lead to six with seven minutes left in the half. After a couple of traded baskets the Cougars would go on a 6-0 run to cut the Regents lead down to two with less than six minutes left in the half. At this point Dixon would take the offensive game over for Rockford and score nine of the teams next eleven points to push the score to 42-35 Rockford with 3:15 left in the half. Rockford and Concordia would trade baskets the rest of the way with the first half score ending at 48-41 in favor of Rockford.
Concordia would tie the game up at the 16:45 mark and a few possessions later they would take their first lead. After a couple of traded baskets O'Bryan hit a three-pointer to get the Regents within one point. Over the next three minutes Concordia would go on a 12-6 run to go ahead 70-60. Suchy would hit a three-pointer and then a jumper to cut the Cougars lead down to five. A layup by Dixon, a jumper by Arthur Miller IV (Burlington, Wis./Burlington), and a three-pointer by Suchy at the top of the arc brought the Regents within one point again. After Rockford and Concordia each made a couple of baskets O'Bryan came up with a steal at mid-court and found Dixon under the hoop for a game-tying layup. O'Bryan hit a three-pointer on Rockford's next possession to give the Regents their first lead since early in the second half. A short time later he another three-pointer to give Rockford a 81-75 lead. Concordia tied the game at 81 at the 4:05 mark but Rockford would go ahead by two 30 seconds later after Dixon hit a pair of free throws. Rockford would hold this lead until 42 seconds left in the game when the Cougars made a layup to get within one. Dixon again answered by making a layup with 16 seconds left to give the Regents a three point lead. With three seconds left Concordia threw up a three but it rimmed out and Suchy came down with the rebound. He then held onto the ball with time running out to secure the 86-83 win.
Rockford was led by the three-headed beast of Dixon, Suchy, and O'Bryan. Combined they scored 71 of the teams 86 points. Dixon led the way with a game high 30 points on 11-of-16 shooting and he also had six rebounds. O'Bryan scored 15 points off the bench, all from behind the arc, and added in six assists. Suchy had a grea tall around game contributing 26 points, six assists, four steals, and the last rebound of the game gave him ten rebounds and his second double-double of the year.
Next up for the Regents is a game at Lakeland College on January 25th at 2:00 p.m. Their next home game is on February 1st at 2:00 p.m. against MSOE.
