Lakeland College

Subscribe  

Men's Basketball Blanks Rockford

The Lakeland College men's basketball team (2-3) improved their Northern Athletics Conference record to 2-1 after thoroughly dismantling Rockford College, 108-64, on Saturday, Dec. 9, in Rockford, Ill.

After outscoring the Regents 22-1 within the first six minutes of the game, the Muskies never let their lead dip below 25 points. Buoyed by converting on nine of 14 3-point attempts in the first half for an impressive 64 percent field goal average, Lakeland closed out the first half with a comfortable 57-29 lead.

"On Wednesday against Concordia Chicago we won and had a good effort, but not such good individual efforts," said head coach Kyle Brumett. "Tonight, everyone who played contributed and many probably had career highs. Anytime we can play everyone really helps out our team chemistry and helps keep everyone focused."

Junior guard Zach Buchman led the Muskies in scoring off the bench with 19 points, and was one of six Lakeland players to reach double-digits. Buchman enjoyed a perfect shooting night from the field, hitting all three of his shots, two of which were from beyond the arc, and knocking down 11 of his 12 attempts from the foul line.

"Zach Buchman contributed from the beginning of the game," Brumett said. "David Hoerres also had his best game of the year."

Hoerres, a junior forward, finished with 10 points and seven rebounds, just behind the team's rebounding leader, fellow junior forward Danny Ehnert, who collected 12 boards.

Junior guard Aaron Regal and senior forward Tyrone Coleman also had perfect games on the offensive end, each hitting four out of four field goals for 12 and 11 points respectively. Junior guard Shane Grube and sophomore forward Matt Rogers also shot above 50 percent for 14 points apiece to help boost the team's field goal average to 54 percent for the game.

"The fact that we produced this type of effort without Kris Saiberlich is a very good sign for us," said Brumett, as the Muskies' junior 3-point sharpshooter is currently sidelined with an injury. "The guys came together and played how we asked them to play. I told them that I think Rockford is a better team than this game showed, but we just played really well. I think Rockford is going to beat people."

The only thing to give Lakeland much trouble in the game was the Regent's defensive pressure in the first half, as they forced the Muskies to commit 15 turnovers.

"Even though we had 15 turnovers in the first half, we only had six in the second half, which was good," Brumett said. "We handled their defensive pressure well in the second half."

The Muskies will continue NAC play on the road with Benedictine on Saturday, Dec. 16, in Lisle, Ill.

Although the Eagles also have a very strong squad, Brumett expressed confidence in his team's ability to seize another win away from their home court.

"Anyone that lets us play at our pace is going to have a tough time against us," he said of the Muskies' up-tempo style of play. "If we can get the pace going and take care of the ball like we did in the second half today, we can definitely compete against Benedictine. But, we can't turn the ball over and we must rebound."

Game time with Benedictine is set for 4:15 p.m.

<< Return to News