ELGIN, IL. - Moving onto the next round of the CCAC men's basketball tournament, Judson University (21-10) used a strong second half for a 92-72 win over Purdue-North Central (4-27). Judson had an 11-point lead at the half, 49-38, and then shot 69% from the floor in the second half for the first round win. Finishing with a shooting percentage of 63%, Judson had their best shooting game of the season.
With the win, Judson becomes only the second team in program history to win 21 games. The school record for wins is 24 from the 1983-84 season. Judson also continued their school record winning streak of nine games and has also won 12 of their last 13 games.
Recording a career-high of 20 points, Ben Rayhorn played his best game in a Judson uniform. He shot 62% from the floor and went 7-of-7 from the stripe. Dewayne Robinson led all scorers with 21 points while Landon Skinner added 16 points and Josh Weber 12. J.F. Ndomb had 19 points for Purdue-North Central.
Giving Judson a run for their money in the first half, Purdue-North Central hung with the Eagles for the entire half. Purdue-North Central only had one lead, 3-0, on the opening shot of the game but matched Judson shot for shot for the first 10 minutes. Judson did not get too far ahead as with 7:27 left in the half they only had a one-point lead, 27-26. In less than a minute, though, a Rayhorn three-pointer and a Skinner layup off of a steal put Judson back up by six, 32-26. Judson pushed their lead to 10, 42-32, with 3:35 on the clock but in a minute and a half Purdue-North Central came within five on a 6-1 run, 43-38. Judson then shut out the Purdue-North Central in the final 1:59 of the half to take an 11-point lead at the half, 49-38.
Purdue-North Central hit the first bucket of the second half, too, to make Judson's lead only nine points. That is as close as they would get to Judson in the second half. Over the next two minutes, Judson had a 12-5 run to make it a 16-point lead, 61-45. Weber had eight of the 12 points in the run for Judson.
Taking their first 20-point lead of the game, Judson's Skinner stole the ball and then banked home a layup with 11:17 left to make it 74-53. At the 6:10 mark, Purdue-North Central had the lead back down to 11, 78-67, after a 14-4 run but Judson scored the next 10 points for a 21-point lead, 88-67. Judson's largest lead of the game came with 3:05 remaining when Robinson canned two free throws making it 92-69. Judson did not score another point from that point on and only let Purdue-North Central make one shot from the floor and one free throw to finish the game.
Judson finished hitting 63% of their shots from the floor and made 38% from beyond the arc and 80% from the stripe. Purdue-North Central made 44% of their shots, was 30% from three-point range, and 70% from the foul line. Judson out rebounded Purdue-North Central, 34-20, but had more turnovers, 17 to 14.
Judson will now host Trinity Christian on Wednesday, February 25th, at 7:00 p.m. in the Lindner Fitness Center. This CCAC Tournament game will be a semi-final game with the winner advancing to the CCAC Tournament Championship game.
