WHEATON, Ill. - The Rockford University men's basketball team cruised to a 79-65 road win on Friday night at Wheaton College. Rockford trailed for just 5 minutes and 7 seconds the entire game and never trailed after the 9:25 mark in the first half. The Regents led in nearly every major statistical category, with their biggest advantages coming in rebounding (45-31), offensive rebounding (10-3), points in the paint (38-26), points off turnovers (20-17) and second chance points (9-5). The victory gives Rockford its first win over Wheaton since 1997 and vaults the Regents into the Lee Pfund Classic Championship Game on Saturday at 7 PM against the University of Dubuque.
- The game got off to a bit of a slow start for both teams, with the Regents and Thunder combining to score just 20 points over the first 11 minutes.
- With the score tied at 10-10, Rockford used a 10-2 run over a span of 2:52 to take the largest lead thus far for either team. The Regents went 4-of-5 from the floor, including draining a pair of triples, to take a 20-12 advantage.
- Rockford's Matthew Elliott knocked down his first three-pointer of the game at the 2:52 mark, to push the Regents' lead into double-figures for the first time at 27-17.
- Elliott then made a layup to make it a 12-point game before Rockford took a 31-20 edge into the half.
- Ben Grunloh and Tre Miller combined to score Rockford's first 13 points of the second half to put the Regents up 44-26. Grunloh hit a pair of threes to bookend the scoring, with Miller adding the other seven points, including a triple of his own. The two went a perfect 4-4 from the field and 2-2 from the free throw line over a span of 2 minutes and 44 seconds.
- Each time it looked like Wheaton might be able to trim the Regent lead down to single-digits, Rockford had an answer. After the Thunder cut it to a 12-point game with just under 10 minutes left, Jaden Bell calmly stepped up to the three-point line and drained one of his three triples to push the Regents' lead back up to 15. Bell again answered the call later in the half with a made layup after Wheaton clawed its way to within 11 points.
- Tre Miller proceeded to essentially salt the game away with a made layup to make it a 17-point lead with just under 4 minutes remaining.
- Rockford was then able to make enough free throws down the stretch to earn an impressive 79-65 win.
- Tre Miller finished with a team-high 18 points on 5-10 shooting. He also added 3 steals, 2 assists, a rebound and a block.
- Matthew Elliott added 13 points on 5-9 shooting and 5 rebounds off the bench.
- Micah Swanson had 11 points, a game-high 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks.
- Jaden Bell chipped in 11 points, 6 rebounds, an assist, a block and a steal.
- Seth Childers tallied 6 points, 7 rebounds, a game-high 5 assists and 2 steals.
