ELMHURST, Ill. –The Elmhurst men's basketball team suffered its first loss at R.A. Faganel Hall this season, falling to Millikin University 74-64.
 
Elmhurst (18-6/10-5 CCIW), ranked 15th in the latest D3hoops.com poll, raced out to a huge lead in the opening half, only to see Millikin (14-10/9-6 CCIW) claw its way back into the contest. A poor shooting performance in the second half by Elmhurst allowed Millikin to outscore the Bluejays 46-26 over the final 20 minutes of action. The loss was Elmhurst's first loss at home this season, dropping the Bluejays to 11-1 at R.A. Faganel Hall. 
 
Elmhurst came out of the gates strong, scoring the first nine points of the contest before building a 27-5 lead with eight minutes left to play in the opening half. The Bluejays' led by 20 (35-15) with 3:30 left before Millikin made its first run of the night. The Big Blue rattled off 13 straight points to cut Elmhurst's lead down to seven with one minute remaining. An Ocean Johnson 3-pointer gave Elmhurst a 10-point (38-28) lead at the half.
 
Millikin heated up at the start of the second half. The Big Blue opened with a 16-5 run, overtaking Elmhurst 44-43 with 14:49 left on the clock. Neither team would lead by more than three points over the next nine minutes as the score was knotted four times and the two squads exchanged leads three times.
 
The score was knotted at 61-61 with 2:44 remaining after Jake Rhode drilled a three-pointer, but Millikin scored the next seven points to open up a 68-61 lead with 1:02 left on the clock. The Bluejays came as close as four points, but Millikin hit six free throws down the stretch to secure the victory.
 
Elmhurst shot 56.7 percent (17-of-30) in the opening half but hit just of 8-of-33 attempts (24.2 percent) in the second half to finish the contest shooting 39.7 percent (25-of-63). Elmhurst hit 4-of-9 3-point attempts in the first half, but just 5-of-20 from beyond the arc in the second half.
 
Rhode led Elmhurst in the loss, finishing with 19 points. Johnson added 10 points while Dominic Genco and Levon Thomas scored eight points apiece. Jonathan Zapinski added a team-leading eight rebounds for the Bluejays.
 
Millikin finished the contest shooting 40.4 percent (23-of-57) from the floor, including 50 percent (13-of-26) in the second half. After not scoring in the opening half, Calvin Fisher scored 18 in the second half to pace Millikin. Fisher added nine rebounds in the victory. Cole Laurence and Jake Hampton added 11 points apiece while Demarcus Bond scored 10.
 
Elmhurst wraps up the regular season by playing at Carthage College on Saturday, February 19.