Rice Drops Career-High 25 Points In Tough Loss Against Illinois College

ST. LOUIS, Mo.—The Fontbonne University men's basketball team hit the court for the first time in 2021 and suffered a tough loss at the hands of the Illinois College BlueBoys.

Final: Illinois College 81, Fontbonne 75

How It Happened

Things started out well for the Griffins early in the first half with Domonic Doolin making his layup to give Fontbonne the 16-10 advantage just six and change in.

At 8:07, the Blueboys trimmed the deficit down to 28-21, however, the Griffins blew the game open over the next six minutes going on a 13-3 run capped off by Elijah Rice's three-point play to give Fontbonne a 41-24 lead.

The Blueboys, though continued to hang around closing out the final two minutes on a 9-2 run to narrow Fontbonne's lead to 43-33.

Fontbonne shot 48.6 percent from the floor in the first and were led by Rice's game-high 11 points. Anthony Jones added 10 on 4-of-6 shooting.

In the second, the Griffins continued to hold onto its advantage with Rice draining his 3-pointer at 11:52 to give them a 57-50 lead.

Over the next four minutes, the Blueboys went on a 11-2 run with Jake Mazrimas' layup giving them its first lead of the game, 61-59. The two teams went back-and-forth as the clock continued to tick away as a 3-pointer from Rice gave Fontbonne its lead back, 69-66 with 4:50 left.

However, the Blueboys regained the 75-73 lead with just under three minutes left and never looked back securing the 81-75 victory.

Team Comparison

• Fontbonne shot 40.3 percent from the floor and connected on nine 3-pointers.
• The Griffins went just 8-of-16 (50.0 percent) from the free throw line.
• The Blueboys ended the night shooting 45.7 percent from the field, including connecting on 50.0 percent of its attempts in the second half.
• IC bench dominated came through scoring 35 points.

Fontbonne Leaders

• Rice went off for a career-high 25 points on 9-of-20 shooting.
• Anthony Jones finished with 16 points on 7-of-12 shooting.
• Caden Clark filled up his stat line running the point with nine points, eight rebounds, and a game-high seven assists.
• Newcomer Brent Wagner came off the bench going 3-of-5 from downtown to end with nine points.
• Gus Kleekamp pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds.

Up Next

The team returns to action on Friday night when they'll visit Illinois College. Tip-off at 7 p.m.

Fans make sure to stay updated on fontbonnegriffins.com throughout the year for full updates and recaps on the men's basketball team.

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