Tournament MVP Joe Womble led Illinois College (3-0) with 17 points while teammates Mark Gillingham and Mitchell Hurliman added 14 and 10, respectively. Eric McMillan had a game-high 22 points to pace Dominican (4-1) while Marlon Cobb had 14 points for the Stars.
The Blueboys used a 16-0 run midway through the first half to take a 22-13 lead and limited the visitors to just 12 points during the final 14 minutes of the opening period. But the Stars began cutting into the 39-25 halftime margin early in the second period, eventually getting to within six points at 44-38 at the 14:29 mark.
Illinois College regained momentum, however, and opened their lead to 61-50 at the 3:22 mark before the Stars made one final run. Dominican narrowed the gap to six points on a layup by Cobb with just under a minute left but that was as close as the visitors would get as the Blueboys managed a pair of key rebounds off missed Dominican shots in the final seconds to preserve the win.
Dominican posted a 36-27 edge on the boards, with the Stars’ Mike Haiduc collecting a game-high eight boards. The winners shot 48 percent from the field (23-48) to 39 percent (22-56) for Dominican, and the well-played game produced just 22 turnovers, with eight of those committed by the Blueboys.
In the consolation contest, Concordia (Ill.) University (3-1) got 13 points from Lafeyette Bell and 10 apiece from Bobby Smith and Justin Gray to hold off MacMurray College, 72-68. Brad Cunningham and Jerel Robertson each had 13 points for MacMurray (0-3) while Ryan Eberhart added 10.
In addition to Womble, the all-tournament team included Illinois College’s Mitch Hurliman, Haiduc and Derek Pederson of Dominican, Bell of Concordia, and by MacMurray’s Robertson.