CHICAGO – The 24th-ranked Roosevelt men's basketball team celebrated seniors Joshua Dillingham, Adam Alexander and Tomas Cutts in a pregame Senior Day ceremony prior to wrapping up the regular season in a winning way that has been typical of the Lakers' most successful campaign to date.
Roosevelt matched its national ranking with its school-record 24th win of the season by defeating Trinity Christian, 62-54, at the Goodman Center on Saturday.
Jake Asquini made five treys for a game-high 17 points, Dillingham added 14 points and seven rebounds, and Jake Ludwig scored 10 points as the Lakers (24-6, 15-5 CCAC) now turn their attention to the CCAC Tournament that begins on Wednesday with a quarterfinal contest at the Goodman Center beginning at 7 p.m.
The CCAC will announce the official seedings and bracket in the upcoming days.
Juozas Balciunas led the Trolls (8-22, 4-16 CCAC) with 13 points.
Roosevelt shook off a 14-6 deficit early and 12 first-half turnovers by going on a tide-turning 11-0 burst that allowed the Lakers to take the lead for good.
The Green and White used a 12-0 run early in the second half to break the game wide open. While the Trolls wouldn't go away and used a late run of their own to get their deficit down to seven with less than 30 ticks left in regulation, Roosevelt built enough cushion and showed enough resolve late to come away with the win.
"Our defense led us again tonight because their zone really gave us problems with us turning it over 12 times alone in the first half," Roosevelt head coach Joe Griffin said. "Our defending kept us in it and we held their top two players [Balciunas and Caleb Jonkman] to 10-for-37 shooting and seven points off their collective scoring average."
In addition to honoring senior student-athletes Cutts, Dillingham and Alexander, Roosevelt recognized senior manager Anthony Mroz for his years of service as a dedicated member of the staff who took on a bigger role in 2017-18 as he prepares to pursue coaching in his future.
"It was special to honor our seniors and their families, but it is nice this year in that we hopefully have many more games to play," Griffin said.
Griffin is looking ahead to the postseason and the potential for a historic first NAIA National Championship bid.
"Now that the regular season is wrapped up, we feel very strongly that our overall body of work warrants an at-large bid to the national tournament," Griffin said. "We have been remarkably consistent all year long and we survived Josh's injury. When Josh was in the lineup and we were full strength, we finished 16-1. We had the eighth-best winning percentage nationally coming into today's game, so we feel strong about deserving a berth.
"We are excited to host the first round of the conference tourney this Wednesday."
