Box Score

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The Illinois Wesleyan men's basketball team outscored Wheaton 16-6 in an overtime period to claim an 87-77 win to open the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin season at the Shirk Center on Wednesday (Jan. 4).

The Titans won for the sixth straight time and improved to 10-2 overall while the No. 23-ranked Thunder fell to 9-3 and 0-1 in the league. The Titans' bench outscored Wheaton's 31-20 in a game that was tied 12 times and saw six lead changes.

The Titans trailed by a 36-33 margin at halftime and were outrebounded by a 20-14 margin in the first period. But the Titans and Thunder finished regulation tied at 71-71 and IWU battled back and was outrebounded in the game by only two at 45-43. Junior Kevin Reed collected a game-high and career-high 12 boards.
Wheaton got 11 rebounds from senior All-American Tim McCrary.

Illinois Wesleyan was led in scoring by senior Jordan Zimmer, who poured in 26 and connected on four of the Titans' seven 3-pointers. Senior Stephen Rudnicki came off the bench to score 14 points and three assists in 21 minutes, going 9-for-10 from the free throw line, and senior Eliud Gonzalez added 11 points with five assists.

The Thunder had four players in double figures, led by 20 from senior Aaron Garriott, who fouled out with 36 seconds to play in the overtime. McCrary scored 18, Spencer Schulze added 15 and Nate Serenius came off the bench to contribute 14.

The Titans were 27 of 67 from the field (.403) and made four of their six field goal tries in overtime.
The Thunder shot .453 from the floor (29 of 64), made only two of 13 3-pointers (.154), and shot .680 from the free throw line (17 of 25), making 11 of 19 in the second half and overtime.

Illinois Wesleyan plays a 4:30 p.m. game at North Park on Saturday (Jan. 7).