CHICAGO -- The University of Chicago men's basketball team dominated the Trinity Tigers on Sunday evening to close out the third night of the Midway Classic.
The Maroons exploded after tip-off, burying seven threes in the opening 10 minutes, with three of the triples coming on back-to-back-to-back possessions from
Eamonn Kenah. Then, within minutes,
Phillip Lawrence followed with three straight triples of his own to help fuel a 30-2 run over a nine-minute span to stretch the UChicago lead from 15-14 to 45-16. The Maroons would then cap off the half with a late three from
Blake Hawthorne to enter the locker room with a 50-23 advantage.
Trinity opened the second half with a brief push, but UChicago showed no signs of slowing down. After a single free throw from the Tigers, a triple from
Joe Berry ignited yet another Maroon scoring run. A strong drive and finish
from Nick
Roper gave the Maroons a 30-point cushion after completing the and-one.
The bench kept the pressure for UChicago throughout the final minutes as
Ben Chasin and
Arhan Lapsiwala each hit threes down the stretch en route to the 87-57 win.
The Maroons finished the game shooting 49.3% from the field and 45.0% from the three. UChicago showed its depth as the bench combined for 32 points, following Lawrence's all-out 17-point performance.
Nick Roper led all scorers with 20 points, nine rebounds, and two assists. Kenah secured his second 15+ point performance with 18 points on the night, going 6-for-9 from beyond the arc. Helping the Maroons win the rebounding battle,
Daniel Cochran added nine rebounds to the stat sheet.
With the win, the Maroons improve to 2-0 on the season. UChicago will return to action on Wednesday night as the team travels to Bloomington, Illinois for a top-20 matchup with #16 Illinois Wesleyan.