SHEBOYGAN, Wis. - Fresh off its thrilling second half comeback win on Wednesday, the Rockford University men's basketball team hoped to carry that momentum into Saturday's road game against Lakeland College. However, the Regents knew it would be a daunting task as the Muskies entered the matchup in second place in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference and were winners of 9 of their last 11 games overall.
Rockford dug itself into a deep hole early in the first half that it was never quite able to overcome. The Muskies opened the game scoring the first 14 points to take a 14-0 lead less than four minutes into the half. Lakeland built its lead up to a high of 18 points until the Regents were able to mount a bit of a comeback. Trailing 35-17, the Regents went on an 11-2 run with 6:35 left in the first half to cut the Lakeland lead to single-digits for the first time since early in the game. Rockford knocked down all four of its shots during that run including three 3-point baskets. Senior Scott Suchy (Genoa, Ill./Genoa-Kingston) spearheaded the Rockford spurt scoring 6 of the 11 points by connecting on a pair of three-point attempts. However the Regents' surge was short lived as the Muskies quickly pushed their lead back to double-figures and took a 56-44 lead into the intermission.
The Regents opened the second half looking as though they may find a way to take the lead, but ultimately the Muskies were able to pull away. Rockford began the second half with a quick 6-0 run to make it a 56-50 game with 17:56 remaining in the second half. The Regents scored all six points off layups with four of the six coming from freshman Zach Wallace (Rockford, Ill./Belvidere). However, Lakeland answered immediately scoring 14 of the next 18 points to take a 70-54 lead at the 12:09 mark. Rockford never really threatened for the remainder of the game as the Muskies finished with a 91-78 victory.
Both teams put on a fairly good shooting performance as the Muskies connected on 49.3% of its shots from the field while the Regents drained 37.5% of its three-point attempts. Rockford's nine made three-point baskets as a team tied a season-high.
For the second consecutive game Rockford got the majority of its scoring from two players. Senior David Dixon (Bellwood, Ill./St. Joseph) recorded his eighth double-double of the season with 24 points and 10 rebounds. It is also the eleventh time this season that Dixon has scored at least 20 points in a single game. Fellow senior Scott Suchy continued his excellent play as well scoring a team-high 25 points on an impressive 9-of-19 shooting. Suchy has now scored at least 20 points in five games this year including each of his last two. The senior rounded out his afternoon with 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals.
The men's basketball team returns to the court on Tuesday, January 28th on the road against rival Aurora University. Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m.
