The first half was a back-and-forth affair that featured eight lead changes. Trailing 21-20, Hanover grabbed the lead on a jumper by Ben Lye with six minutes to play in the half. The Panthers built their lead to as many as seven points at 32-25. A jumper by Evan Patchett with three seconds remaining brought Elmhurst to within five points at 32-27 at halftime.
Hanover jumped out quickly in the second half, pushing its lead to 10 points and 37-27. Elmhurst was without a bucket for the first 3:30 of the second half. Trailing by 10 points at 39-29 with 15:34 to play, the Bluejays began clawing their way back into the game. The Bluejays opened up a 9-0 run keyed by four points from Strzemp and three points from Chris Martin.
A lay-in by Brian Chrin gave Hanover a 41-38 lead with 11:17 to play. Strzemp buried a 3-pointer from the top of the key to knot the game at 41. Hanover took the lead right back on a lay-in from Robby Brown, but the Bluejays answered right back with a trey from Ruch.
With the score tied at 45-45 with under nine minutes to play, Hanover opened up a five-point lead at 52-47 with just under seven minutes to play. Elmhurst responded with a 14 straight points while Hanover went without a point for over five minutes. The Bluejays built a nine-point lead at 61-52 with 1:49 remaining. Hanover trimmed the lead down to seven, but free throws from Chris Ihlenfeldt and a lay-in by Martin gave the Bluejays the 67-56 win.
For the game, Elmhurst shot 47.8 percent from the floor (22-of-46) and 28.6 percent (4-of-14) from downtown. Elmhurst hit 19-of-28 free throw attempts (67.9).
Hanover finished the night shooting 38.6 percent from the floor (22-of-57) and just 19.0 percent from 3-point range (4-of-21). The Panthers hit 8-of-11 free throws (8-of-11).
Hanover did win the rebounding war, with a 37-30 advantage. The Panthers controlled the offensive glass with 16 rebounds, leading to 18 second chance points.
After scoring just six points in Wednesday night's loss to UW-Platteville, Elmhurst's bench scored 43 points in the win. Ruch led all scorers with 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting while pulling down eight rebounds. Strzemp hit 5-of-7 shots from the floor, finishing with 13 points. Martin added 12 points and Patchett came off the bench to score 10 points.
Marc O'Leary led Hanover with 11 points. Brown finished with nine points and eight rebounds. Lye tallied eight points and seven boards in the loss while Clint Parker also scored eight.
Elmhurst travels to Kalamazoo College on Wednesday, December 7.