Men drop season opener

By JJ Ossola
IV Leader Associate Editor

    The men’s basketball team started the season with a high-octane game against the Illinois Central College Cougars, but could not defend their slim lead in the final minutes, coming up short, losing by three points.
    The Cougars trailed the Eagles by as much as 12 points in the first half, but rallied in the second half to win in the final seconds, 76-73.
    “You have to give them credit for being able to pull together and fight back tooth-and-nail to get the win on the road,” coach Mike Riley said. “The crowd was really into the game and it was the first college game for the freshmen. We took it to them pretty hard in the first half but some of our players may have been a little out of gas in the second.”
    Maurice Montgomery was the only sophomore to start and got into foul trouble early.
    “Maurice got two calls early in the first and we couldn’t risk getting a third,” Riley said. “We were giving up three, five inches having to go small like that early on and it kept them going.”
    The Eagles dominated every category in the game except for shooting. They shot 38 percent from the floor as a team compared to the Cougars 50 percent.
    Montgomery finished the game 3-for-4 behind the arc and 57 percent inside it, racking up 18 points, four rebounds, two assists and one steal.
    Freshman Guard Durrell Kern led the team in points with 25, rebounds with eight, steals with three and blocked shots with two. Kern and freshman guard George Gourad each had three assists. Gourad also pulled in four rebounds and added 12 points.
    Freshman forward Quentin Noblin added six rebounds, four points and an assist while freshman guard Billy Ghighi chipped in three points and a rebound.
    Sophomore guard Wes Hood struggled, shooting 50percent in the paint, adding 11 points, two rebounds and a steal.
    Coach Riley said, “It was a great game and a good learning experience. Overall, we played the game that we set out to do and we move on to the next.”
    As of press time, the team is 1-2 after a four-point loss to South Suburban on Nov. 10 and an 18-point win over the College of DuPage on Nov. 12.
    In the loss to South Suburban, Montgomery had a team high 14 points and 12 rebounds, while Gourad and Young added 12 apiece. The team only shot 29.6 percent in the second half and 41.9 percent for the game.
    In the win over College of DuPage, Noblin led the team with 21 points and grabbed eight rebounds, while Montgomery added 17 points and led the team with 10 rebounds and five assists. Hood went 4-for-7 from behind the arc, adding 12 points and four assists while Ghighi added 12 points and had five rebounds.