East Peoria, Ill. - Oh, the weather outside is frightful. Sure, it's a Christmas tune, it can of course be used for any weather that remotely reflects that of a late-December evening. Well, that was the case on Monday night when the ICC men's basketball team (11-6 Overall, 3-1 Region 24, 1-1 MWAC) hosted a quality Bryant & Stratton Bobcats squad that was fairly fresh off of taking #5 South Suburban to overtime. The visitors got off to a red-hot start and never looked back, on their way to a 85-59 win over the Cougars at Ramsey Gym.
The Bobcats were crashing the boards and defending well early, and those two elements of their play sparked an early 12-0 run. That was, until
Payton Cook muscled his way through the lane for a layup at the 12:52 mark for a 12-2 score. The Cougars would counter with a 10-2 run of their own, most of which was scored by
Tony Mabon Jr., the team's leading scorer by night's end. The Cougars were able to turn up their own defensive pressure and rely on a Bryant & Stratton cold streak as well to get the game within 14-10. The metaphorical game of runs would continue, with the Bobcats going on a 7-0 run to make it a 21-10 game, and the Cougars countering again, now with a 6-0 run to make it 21-16. Alas, a slight surge by Bryant & Stratton just before the halftime break extended the lead to 13 (37-24) going into the locker room.
To a degree, halftime adjustments were not made. That's not to say there weren't strategical changes at halftime, but rather neither offense was able to get into enough of a rhythm to expand the margin. That was, until the Bobcats went on what would eventually turn into a game-deciding run, knocking down a trey to go up 21 points with roughly 5:30 to go. At that point, the Cougars were unable to widen the gap, and some late turnovers turned into points and created the final score's 26-point margin.
PLAYER STATISTICS
*This story will update with statistics as soon as they are made available.
WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE COUGARS
vs. Lewis & Clark Trailblazers
@ Ramsey Gym - East Peoria, Ill.
Wednesday, January 24th - 7:30 PM
Watch Live (YouTube)
