LA VERNE, Calif. - The Elmhurst men's basketball team scored its seventh win of the season by cruising to a 97-64 win over the University of La Verne.
Elmhurst, ranked 16th in the latest D3hoops.com poll, improved to 7-1 on the season with the victory. La Verne fell to 0-8 on the season.
The Bluejays scored the first four points of the contest and never trailed, leading wire-to-wire against the Leopards. Elmhurst built a 10-point cushion just six minutes into the contest. Leading by 10 with 11:44 remaining, the Bluejays' upped their lead to 19 over the next seven minutes, opening up a 39-20 cushion. Elmhurst led 45-26 at the half.
Elmhurst pushed its lead up over 30 points early in the second half before putting the game out of reach and coasting to the 33-point win.
The Bluejays shot 55.1 percent (38-of-69) from the field, including an even 50.0 percent (13-of-26) from beyond the arc. Elmhurst dominated the game inside, outrebounding La Verne 50-23 and outscoring the Leopards 44-20 in the paint. Elmhurst turned 15 offensive rebounds into 17 second-chance points.
Jake Rhode led Elmhurst and all scorers with a game-high 27 points. Rhode shot 11-of-14 from the floor, including 5-of-7 from beyond the arc.
Ebrahim Jobe came off the bench to finish with 12 points and seven rebounds, shooting 6-of-7 from the field.
Hunter Merritt and
Dominic Genco totaled 11 points apiece for the Bluejays. In total, 12 Bluejays put points on the scoreboard in the win.
Derek Dotlich finished with five points in the victory, eclipsing the 1,000-point mark for his career. Dotlich became the 27th player in Elmhurst history to score over 1,000 points in his career. Dotlich and Rhode, who joined the 1,000-point club earlier this year, give Elmhurst a pair of 1,000-point scorers on the roster at the same time for the first time since the 2016 season when Bryant Ackerman and Kyle Wuest both topped the 1,000-point mark.
La Verne shot 37.0 percent (20-of-54) from the floor including 30.4 percent (7-of-23) from downtown. Jordan Allen led the Leopards with 15 points. John Malone and Paul Antonis totaled nine points apiece.
Elmhurst wraps up its two-game California road trip by playing at Caltech on Thursday, December 19.
