CHICAGO – University of Chicago men's basketball officially kicked off their season this past weekend when they hosted their annual Midway Classic Tournament inside the Ratner Athletic Center. The Maroons took care of business by nearly doubling up Caltech in game one before they finished off the weekend with a nine-point win over local foe Illinois Tech for the weekend sweep.

RESULTS
Cal Tech – 48
UChicago – 88

Illinois Tech – 71
UChicago – 80

HOW IT HAPPENED

• vs. Caltech
  • University of Chicago (2-0) absolutely dominated Caltech to begin their new campaign starting off with a 40-point first half behind 16-of-31 shooting from the field. The Maroons defense was in full force on the other side of the court as well, limiting the Beavers to just 10 field goals as they took a 16-point lead into halftime.
  • Both aspects of the UChicago game kept moving right along in the last 20 minutes of play, increasing their point total by eight while holding Caltech to 24 for the second straight frame. The Maroons made seven shots from behind the three-point line in the stanza and owned the paint in the game by a 32-10 margin.
  • Eamonn Kenah led UChicago with a game-high tying 16 points in 25 minutes of action while both Arrish Bhandal and Luke Smith each brought down six rebounds in the 40-point victory.
• vs. Illinois Tech
  • It looked like Saturday's action would repeat itself the next day when the Maroons took on in-city rival Illinois Tech (1-1) as UChicago outscored the Scarlet Hawks 45-29 in the first half. The Maroons made 17 field goals in the opening 20 minutes including six from long range and led by as much as 22.
  • The second half was a different story though. IIT flipped the script and outscored the Maroons, cutting their deficit down to just five with under two and a half minutes left to play. A 10-6 run by UChicago closed the door on any comeback IIT was trying to put together including five buckets from the line in what would end up being a nine-point home team win.
  • Bryce Hopkins was a force on both sides of the ball on Sunday, leading the squad with 20 points and eight rebounds. The victory was a full team effort though as they tallied 15 assists with the game high of four falling under Thomas Kurowski's name in the scorebook.

WHO'S ON DECK
The Maroons will be back in action on Wednesday when they travel to the Wisconsin state capital to take on Edgewood. Game time from Madison is slated for 7:00 pm.

For up-to-the-minute University of Chicago Maroons news, visit www.athletics.uchicago.edu. You can also follow us on Twitter @uchicagoath and @uchicagoathletics on Instagram.