The Dominican University men's basketball team opened the 2017-18 season with a 74-63 win over the University of the Ozarks Eagles at the Bill Merris Classic hosted by Illinois College in Jacksonville, Illinois, on Friday night.  With the win, the Stars advance to the tournament championship match where they will meet the host Blueboys on Saturday at 4:00 p.m.
 
Transfer Jonny Woolf paced the Stars in the winning effort, dropping in 21 points on 6-for-12 shooting to lead all scorers on the night.

"It was a nice win to start the season," said Mark White, the Stars' head coach, following the win. "We had good balance on the offensive end of the floor and held tough defensively when the shots weren't falling. We are looking forward to the tournament championship game tomorrow."
 
Trailing 21-20 with less than nine minutes to play in the first half, Woolf knocked down a pair of free throws to spark an 8-2 run, capped by a Woolf three, to put the Stars ahead 28-23 with 6:48 to play in the opening half and Dominican would never trail again.
 
Freshman Jackson Smith came off the Dominican bench to add ten points in the first half, knocking down a pair of threes in just 11 minutes of work.
 
Dominican's defense then sealed the win in the second half, forcing 11 turnovers and holding the Eagles to just 9-for-26 shooting from the field.  On the offensive end, the Stars converted on all 12 of their trips to the free throw line, including senior Tim Robertson who went 6-for-6 from the foul line in the second half and a perfect 8-for-8 in the game.
 
Smith finished with 15 in his collegiate debut while Isaac Moore and Robertson added 13 and 12 respectively to round out four in double-figures scoring for the Stars.
 
As a team, the Stars shot 37-percent from the field (23-62) including shooting 10-for-28 from three-point distance.
 
For the Eagles, Bryson Johnson, Dylan Gray and Kelvin Knight all finished with 12 points while Ozarks shot 35-percent (20-57) from the field.
 
The win was the first season opening victory for Dominican since 2010.  That year the Stars upended the University of Chicago, 74-73.