The Dominican University men's basketball team trailed Rockford University by 18 points with 11:28 to play before scoring 43 points over the game's final 11 minutes to score an 86-85 victory at the Igini Sports Forum. Junior Tim Robertson paced the comeback, scoring a game-high 34 points, including 24 in the second half, as the Stars improve to 7-2 on the season at the Igini Sports Forum and 10-9 overall, 7-7 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC).
"The attitude was to just keep playing defense," said Robertson when asked about his team's early struggles. "We were getting good shots early but we were struggling—but we kept playing good defense and forcing them to take tough shots to get some big stops and then hit some shots."
After Rockford's Zach Wallace (17 points, 14 rebounds) converted a pair of free throws with 11:28 to play, extending the Regents' lead to 61-43, Dominican embarked on a 27-4 run that spanned over six minutes to erase the Regents' lead and open their own five-point margin, 70-65. During the run, Robertson tallied ten points, including a pull-up jumper at the free throw line that pulled Dominican within two, 65-63. On the Stars next possession, Robertson pushed after getting a rebound on the defensive glass and Dominican worked the ball around the perimeter, eventually finding Josh Mayberry in the corner for a go-ahead three-pointer, giving the Stars their first lead since leading 8-7 with 12:42 to play in the first half.
Robertson then capped the Dominican run, pulling up on the baseline in transition for a 12-foot jumper to give the Stars their largest lead of the night, 70-65.
Rockford angled the lead back down to one on two separate occasions but the Stars, held on with Robertson adding six points in the final two minutes while Mayberry and Domenic Aiello combined to go 6-for-6 at the foul line in the final three minutes.
Robertson shot 16-for-26 from the field on the night, going 12-for-16 in the second half, in the winning effort. The Chicago native added nine rebounds in 33 minutes despite playing with four fouls the final 9:40.
Mayberry and Keshaun Smith added 18 and ten points respectively as the Stars put three in double-figures. Mayberry labored through a 4-for-13 shooting night, going 1-for-5 from three, but converted on each of his nine attempts from the foul line.
For the Regents, Tony Diemer led the way with 26 points in 27 minutes, shooting 11-for-19 from the field.
The Stars, in a tie for fifth-place in the NACC standings, return to action on Thursday, hosting the Concordia University Wisconsin Falcons at 7:00 p.m. in the Igini Sports Forum. Dominican then closes a stretch of four games in eight days on Saturday when the Lakeland College Muskies visit River Forest.
"It's exciting," commented Robertson. "We know we have three big home games this week. Rockford was right on our heels now we got a big one on Thursday and another big game on Saturday."