The Millikin men's basketball team earned its first victory of the year with a thrilling 58-57 win at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa on Dec. 19.

          After trailing early in the game, the Big Blue rallied to take the lead and built a 27-22 advantage at the half.  Millikin opened the second half strong building up a nine point lead.  Cornell then rallied to tie the game at 54-54 with 3:05 left to play.

          Trailing 55-54, Millikin's Nikko Robertson gave the Big Blue the advantage with a layup with 2:42 remaining.  Cornell then answered to make it 57-56.  The Big Blue got the game winner with 1:31 left to play on a Brock Von Nordeck dunk off an assist from Rodney Clark.

          Millikin shot 51 percent from the field while holding the Rams to 42 percent.  Cornell out rebounded Millikin 29-28.

          Von Nordeck led Millikin with 14 points.  Kelvin Jacobs and Jaelan Jones

each had nine.  Rodney Clark had eight points and a team high seven rebounds.

Matt Merrigan also had eight points.  Robertson ended with game with seven points.

          Reggie Greenwood and Rory Cotter each had 15 to lead the Rams.

          The victory was the first Millikin win for new head coach Matt Nadelhoffer. The Big Blue will go for win number two on Dec. 29 when they host Adrian College at 3 p.m.