QUINCY, Ill. - Marcus Hinton finished with a career-high 35 points in the Quincy University 82-79 win over the University of Illinois Springfield Thursday night (Feb. 15).   

Hinton began his scoring early, getting the Hawks off to a 4-0 lead after back to back baskets in the first minute and a half of action.  The Hawks grabbed an early 8-2 lead over the Prairie Stars.  

A 9-0 run by Illinois Springfield gave the Prairie Stars an 11-8 lead with 14:45 remaining in the first half.  The Hawks trailed 17-10 with 12:47 to play in the opening half.  

A 10-0 run by QU, paced by Demetrius Houston and Robby Dosier, gave the Hawks a 20-17 lead with 9:27 left in the first half.  

Houston and Hinton continued their strong play in the first half, giving the Hawks a 34-28 lead.  

The Prairie Stars were able to cut the Hawks lead to four just before the half, and QU led 38-34 at the end of the first half of play.  

QU and UIS battled throughout the second half.  The Prairie Stars held the largest lead of the second half at seven with 7:24 remaining.  

With the Hawks down by five with 5:44 to play,  Marcus Hinton took over.  The junior forward scored the next four points for QU and the Hawks trailed by one.  

After a layup by the Prairie Stars, Ryan Briscoe tied the game at 71 with a three-pointer.  Hinton gave the Hawks the lead at 73-72 after a pair of free throws.  

Illinois Springfield took a 75-73 lead with 1:01 to play.  Hinton answered with a three-pointer and another pair of free throws to give the Hawks a four point lead with 20 seconds remaining.  

A layup by UIS cut the Hawks lead to two. 

Hinton drained two more free throws to push the lead back to four.  

The Prairie Stars scored another layup with 11 seconds remaining.  

Hinton went 1-2 from the foul stripe on his next free throw attempts to give the Hawks a three point lead.  

Illinois Springfield's three point shot was off the mark and  the Hawks held on for the three point win.  

Hinton's 35 points was the highest scoring performance by a QU player since February 20, 2016 by Evan McGaughey against William Jewell.   

Hinton went 9-15 from the field and went 15-16 from the foul line and also grabbed 13 rebounds.  Demetrius Houston scored 20 points for QU.  

The Hawks improved to 8-17, 4-12 in the GLVC.  The Hawks are back in action Thursday, February 22nd against the UMSL Tritons at 7:30 in St. Louis, Mo.