Off to its best start in school history, the Grinnell College men’s basketball team won a hard fought 102-90 come-from-behind victory over Monmouth College before 875 fans. The Pioneers are now a program-best 14-1 on the season while improving to 10-1 in the Midwest Conference. They’ll take that mark into Saturday afternoon’s contest at Lake Forest College, a team that is 11-0 in the league. Junior guard Griffin Lentsch led Grinnell with 30 points, hitting 5-of-12 from 3-point land. Also in double figures for the Pioneers were Patrick Maher with 16 points and Matt Chalupa with 10. Kenny Foster, Michael DeDecker and David Altman led the Fighting Scots in scoring with 14 points each. The Pioneers had 13 steals and forced 35 turnovers with there tenacious man-to-man defense.
-Bob
The #2 ranked Morton Potters (22-2) scored the game’s first 19 points, made 80% of there shots in the first quarter, forced nine turnovers in the first eight minutes and held Limestone (13-6) scoreless until 40 seconds remained in the first period for a 48-24 Mid-Illini Conference win. Cortney Allenbaugh was 7 of 8 from the field for 14 points for the Potters and Lexi Ellis contributed 12 points. Jessica Armour led the Rockets with six points.
-Bob
The Peoria Rivermen put on a show in front of 7,082 fans, most of them local students, Tuesday morning in a 6-3 win over the Milwaukee Admirals at Carver Arena. The game began just after 10 a.m. as the Rivermen held their Faceoff Field Trip, for the second year in a row. Adam Cracknell, Danny Syvret, and T.J. Hensick each found the score sheet twice to help Peoria to 21-19-3 record and put them within one point of Milwaukee (22-16-2) and Chicago (21-16-4) for second in the Midwest Division of the American Hockey League. Ryan Thang added a late goal, but Jonathan Cheechoo’s empty netter finished off the Admirals in the final minute. Jake Allen picked up his fourth win of the year stopping 27 of the 30 shots he faced while the Rivermen fired 40 shots against the Admirals. Click here for the complete game stats.
-Bob
Traveled over to U.S. Cellular Coliseum to photograph the Ice Racing event in Bloomington, IL. Jammin’ Jared Mees dominated the professional motorcycle racing program winning easily. Kevin Anderson placed second and Jake Mataya finished third. Current tour points leader and defending ICE champion “Wild Child” Mandy Brodil won both of her heat races, but was DQ’ed after she was wrecked and was unable to get her ATV up and running in time and finished 8th in the main event for Unlimited Outlaw Quads. Ryan Jensen of Neola, IA won the event with Drew Bergquist finishing second and Justin Ebbing placing third.
-Bob
Junior guard Dyricus Simms-Edwards matched his career-high with 26 points and Taylor Brown added 23, leading Bradley (6-13, 1-6 MVC) to a 78-67 Missouri Valley Conference men’s basketball win versus Northern Iowa (13-6, 3-4 MVC) Sunday afternoon at Carver Arena before 8,223 fans. The Braves duo together outscored the Panthers 35-31 in the second half, helping the Braves erase a 16-point deficit in the final 17:17 to snap a 9-game overall losing streak, as well as a 16-game January slide that dated back to 2010. The win also marked the first MVC win for first-year Bradley head coach Geno Ford. Walt Lemon,Jr. added 16 points for Bradley, teaming with Simms-Edwards and Brown for 65 of Bradley’s 78 points, just two shy of UNI’s total. Click here for official box score.
-Bob
