ANGOLA, IND.-- Trine earned their fourth-consecutive victory in blowout fashion, defeating Illinois Tech, 81-42, Saturday afternoon in Hershey Hall.
The Thunder never trailed, led by 35 at the half, and led by as much as 42 in the victory. Trine forced the Scarlet Hawks into 26 turnovers, which the Thunder were able to turn into 33 points. All twelve players to see action for Trine scored, led by Joel Zwiers' (Grand Rapids, Mich./Grand Rapids Christian) career-high 16 points on 6-of-13 shooting. Tarvis Malone (Toledo, Ohio/St. John's Jesuit) added a season-high 12 points and knocked down 4-of-5 from three-point range. The Thunder improved to 4-2 on the season. Illinois Tech fell to 0-6.
Trine knocked down a season-high 12 threes, led by Zwiers and Malone with four-apiece. The Thunder bench played the majority of the minutes on the afternoon and produced 54 points. Sloan Whitaker (Van Wert, Ohio/Lincolnview) scored a season-high six points, while freshman Justin Davis (Angola, Ind./Angola) set a new career-high with six points.
Samuel Rarick led Illinois Tech with a double-double, scoring 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting and added 11 points. Manish Suthar added 11 points and connected on all three of his field goal attempts.
The Thunder scored the first seven points of the game and never looked back. A 20-0 run over a span of 4:47 extended the Trine lead from 15-6 to 35-6 with 5:56 to play in the first half. Zwiers knocked down three of his treys during that stretch. The freshman knocked down 4-of-5 from long distance in the first half.
Back-to-back threes by Malone gave the Thunder their largest lead of the night at 62-20 with 11 minutes to play. The Scarlet Hawks did not top 40 points until Suthar knocked down a three with 20 seconds remaining.
Trine returns to action this Tuesday, Dec. 9 when they host no. 14 Ohio Wesleyan at 7 p.m. in Hershey Hall.