After a dismal start to the regular season, the Monmouth College men’s basketball team has bounced back and showed promise for next season in recent games.

On Feb. 16, the Scots played their final home game of the season against Illinois College in Glennie Gymnasium. Monmouth claimed their first lead over the Blue Boys with 15:04 remaining in the first half and never looked back, going on to win the contest by 11 points, 77-66.

The Scots were led by senior Joe Terwelp, who scored a game-high 27 points, while grabbing nine rebounds in 29 minutes. Fellow senior Scott Scholten was the only other Scot in double-figures, as he netted 19 points in 32 minutes.

The game served as senior night for Monmouth, and their coach, Mark Vershaw, rewarded his seniors by starting them in their final game at Monmouth. In addition to Terwelp and Scholten, seniors Brett Peurach, Bob Hoffman and Wes Wrage started against Illinois College.

Monmouth was back in action two days later, when they traveled to Grinnell, Iowa, to take on the Grinnell College Pioneers.

The Pioneers are one of the best basketball teams in Division III basketball, and their junior guard John Grotberg is currently the leading scorer in the nation at the Division III level. Grinnell has a unique strategy to their game, as they substitute each player on the court approximately every two minutes, wearing opponents out.

That strategy has worked all season for the Pioneers, who are tied for second place in the Midwest Conference, but Monmouth nearly figured them out on Feb. 18.

The game, which was a make-up game from Feb. 5, went into overtime, and the Scots lost by just one point, 114-113.

A balanced attack enabled Monmouth to stay close to Grinnell, as the Scots had six players score in double figures. Terwelp scored a team-high 18 points to go along with his five rebounds and three assists. Junior Corey Turner scored 15 points for the Scots, while junior Kyle Weyeneth and freshman Corey Gruber each had 14, sophomore Scott Ubenga had 13 and freshman Alex Tanney recorded a double-double, with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Monmouth shot an incredible 62.9 percent as a team from the field.

Monmouth jumped out to an early 9-0 lead, but the Pioneers fought back, and the game stayed extremely close throughout the rest of regulation. After Grinnell claimed a two point lead with 57 seconds remaining in regulation, Scholten stepped up and knocked down two free throws with 15 seconds left to send the game into overtime. Monmouth never led in the extra period, and a free throw by Grinnell with 1:06 left, put the Pioneers up for good.

Playing again just two days later, the Scots concluded their season by traveling to Lake Forest, Ill. to take on the Lake Forest Foresters.

Monmouth was able to end the season on a positive note, as they went on to defeat Lake Forest by a convincing 15 points, 72-57, on Feb. 20.

Gruber turned in another great performance, as he led the Scots with a career-high 21 points. Ubbenga also had another solid game, netting 16 points. Terwelp had a quiet offensive night in his final game at the collegiate level, as he scored just four points, but he made his presence felt elsewhere and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds.

Monmouth trailed the Foresters most of the first half, but an offensive flurry to end the first 20 minutes gave the Scots a four point lead at the break.

Lake Forest tied the game at 52 with 4:51 remaining in the game, but Monmouth then took control, as Tanney nailed two treys to give the Scots a six point advantage. The Foresters had to rely on Monmouth missing free throw shots the rest of the game, but the stubborn Scots calmly knocked down their shots from the charity stripe.

The win moved Monmouth to 7-9 in the MWC, which is good enough for a virtual tie for fifth place with Lake Forest.

The Scots finished the season at 7-15 overall, but a great deal of optimism surrounds the team with their strong finish. Also worth noting is the toughness of Monmouth’s 2007-08 schedule, as the Massey Ratings show the Scots had the sixth toughest schedule in the nation for Division III hoops.

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