Box Score
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - Junior
Andrew Ziemnik led three players in double figures with 17 points as Illinois Wesleyan put away a stubborn Illinois College squad, 74-65, before a Thanksgiving break crowd of 442 at the Shirk Center on Tuesday night (Nov. 20).
Illinois Wesleyan improved to 3-0 as junior
Eric Dortch contributed 11 points and junior
Brady Zimmer scored 10 in his first significant varsity action in his career to aid the Titans in their third straight win. Zimmer played 27 total minutes in eight games as a freshman but missed last season with a shoulder injury.
Illinois College (1-2) held an early lead, getting the first six points of the game but the Titans battled back to tie the game at 8-8 and led by a 24-15 score with 11:09 left in the first half before the Blueboys went on an 10-0 run to take a 25-24 lead with 8:06 left. The game was tied again at 31-31 and 33-33 before IWU took the lead for good with 4:50 before intermission.
IWU's largest lead was 11 points with 4:50 remaining in the game.
“We have to learn when we move the ball good things happen,” head coach
Ron Rose told Randy Reinhardt of
The Pantagraph. “Defensively, we didn't have the intensity early, and we didn't have the intelligence late.”
The Titans held a convincing 45-25 edge on the glass as senior
Kevin Reed had a game-high eight boards and Ziemnik added seven. Dortch and junior
Victor Davis had six boards and junior
Nick Anderson had five rebounds and seven points off the bench.
Illinois Wesleyan shot 46.3 percent from the field (25 of 54) and hit on 7 of 19 3-point fielders. The Titans made only 17 of 28 free throws (60.7 percent).
Isaac Grapperhaus led the Blueboys with a game-hgh 19 points and Brandon Berry added 13. The Blueboys made 22 of 55 from the field (40 percent), 7 of 25 from 3-point range (28 percent) and 14 of their 20 free throws (70 percent).
The Titans will travel to play next at Wabash in Crawfordsville, Ind., on Saturday (Nov. 24) in a 3 p.m. (ET) tipoff. Fans going to that game will make a mistake if they don't stop on the way home for a meal at The Beef House in Covington, Ind. Stew says, "Try the yeast rolls and strawberry jam."
