Box Score

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - Illinois Wesleyan's women's basketball team fought off a second half run to earn an 81-67 win over Coe on Saturday (Nov. 24) at the Shirk Center in the first day of the Frontier Communications/Titan Tournament.

The No. 7-nationally ranked Titans (2-1) will face No. 3-ranked DePauw (4-0) at 3 p.m. on Sunday (Nov. 25) for the tourney title. On free throws with 6 seconds to play, the Tigers were 60-59 winners over No. 6-ranked Washington U. in the first semifinal. Coe (2-1) plays the Bears (2-1) at 1 p.m.

IWU junior Shelby Jackson and junior Katy Seibring, coming off the bench, led the Titans with 17 points each while senior guard Melissa Gardner scored 15 points and junior guard Colleen McMahon added 12.

The Kohawks were paced by the 19 points and 11 rebounds from Megan Hayes. Coe got 15 points from Mackenzie Reed, whose absence was felt after she fouled out with 8:05 to play in the game.
Coe collected 40 rebounds compared to 29 for IWU but the Kohawks were guilty of 36 turnovers while Wesleyan admitted to 19.

Jackson was the Titans' top rebounder with six and Gardner and junior guard Lexi Baltes each handed out four assists.

The Titans built up an early 18 point lead in the first half, taking a 25-7 advantage with 13:54 to play, and led by 16 at the 5:39 mark at 35-19. Coe battled back to outscore IWU 16-4 down the stretch and trailed by just four at 39-35 intermission.

The Kohawks rallied from nine down at 50-41 to score nine straight and tie the game at 50-50 with 12:48 to play. The game was tied again at 53, 55, 57 and 60 before the Titans scored 27 of the game's final 34 points to earn the win.

Illinois Wesleyan shot 43.1 percent from the field (28 of 65), making 8 of 19 from 3-point range (42.1) and knocking in 17 of 22 free throws (77.3). The Kohawks shot 49.0 percent from the floor (25 of 51) and connected on 6 of 11 3-point tries. Coe was 11 of 16 from the free throw line.

GAME ONE: DePauw's Kate Walker made a pair of free throws with 6.1 seconds left in the game to lift the Tigers to the one-point win. Free throws were the key difference in the game, as DePauw finished with 18 points on 29 free-throw attempts, while the Bears were 3-of-5 from the line.
Washington U. shot 50 percent from the field (26-52) in the game, while DePauw shot just 34.5 percent (19-55). The Tigers finished with a 36-34 rebounding advantage, including 18 offensive rebounds to the Bears' nine. Kate Walker scored 18 and Savannah Trees scored 17 to lead the Tigers. Maddy Scheppers led the Bears with 11 points, four rebounds and four steals, while Melissa Gilkey added 10 points and four rebounds.