Box Score

NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Interactive Bracket

2012 NCAA Division III Sectional Web Site

WOOSTER, Ohio - The Illinois Wesleyan men's basketball team saw a 15-point halftime lead slip away but a basket with 18 seconds left by senior Eliud Gonzalez provided the Titans with a 69-67 sectional semifinal win at Wooster on Friday (March 9). IWU meets Wittenberg in the final 8 game Saturday.

The Titans improved to 22-7 with the win while the Fighting Scots season ends at 26-5.

Wittenberg (24-6) advanced by knocking out College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin member North Central by a 58-55 score.

Sophomore Victor Davis was the Titans' leading scorer with 18 points and IWU got terrific contributions off the bench as senior Stephen Rudnicki scored 13 and sophomore Andrew Ziemnik added 11.
Gonzalez handed out 7 assists in addition to scoring 8 points and grabbing 5 rebounds.
Senior John Koschnitzky led IWU with 8 rebounds as the Scots outrebounded IWU by a narrow 33-32 margin.

Illinois Wesleyan built up an early eight point lead at 8-0 but the Scots battled back to tie the issue at 23-23 with 8:28 to go in the half. But the Titans went on a 10-0 run to wrest a 33-23 lead at the 5:40 mark and held a 15-point advantage at 42-27 at intermission.

The Titans' lead increased to 17 with the first basket of the final half and IWU led 60-51 with 9:16 to go before the Scots went on an 8-point run to close to 60-59 before eventually tying the game at 64-64 with 3:39 to go.

A free throw by Ziemnik with 3:13 to go and a basket by Davis with 1:52 left gave IWU a 67-64 lead before Wooster's Justin Hallowell knocked in a 3-pointer to tie the score at 67-67 with 1:33 left. The teams exchanged misses before Gonzalez scored the eventual game-winner with his baseline jumper.

Illinois Wesleyan made 26 of 62 from the field (42 percent) and connected on 9 of 23 3-point field goal attempts (39 percent) while making 8 of 12 free throws.

Wooster shot 49 percent (24 of 49) from the field and made 6 of 15 (40 percent) from 3-point range. The Scots, who were guilty of 15 turnovers to 9 for the Titans, made 13 of their 19 free throw attempts (68 percent).

The Scots had four players in double figures, led by 13 each from reserve Doug Thorpe and Josh Claytor, who missed two free throws with 2 seconds left in the game.
Claytor and Hallowell each had 7 rebounds in the loss.

NOTES: In its third straight and 21st overall appearance in the NCAA tournament, Illinois wesleyan has a 46-20 record in NCAA play…This will be Illinois Wesleyan's eighth appearance in the round of 8 in the NCAA Division III tournament (1990, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2006, 2010)...IWU was the national champion in 1997 and has finished third in 1996, 2001 and 2006...Senior Jordan Zimmer got two 3-point field goals against Wooster and is now the season record holder with 98, topping the mark of 97 by Keelan Amelianovich in 2005-06. Zimmer is the school's career leader with 255 treys...Illinois Wesleyan is the only CCIW school remaining in the NCAA after Friday - Wheaton lost at Wis.-Whitewater 67-56 and North Central fell to Wittenberg...Illinois Wesleyan is the only school with men's and women's teams in the round of eight. The Amherst men lost to Franklin & Marshall 79-71, leaving only IWU. At the start of the tournament there were 15 Division III schools with both men's and women's teams represented. In addition to Amherst, teams that fell were Washington U., Castleton State, Hartwick, Ithaca, Messiah, Misericordia, Rhode Island, St. Thomas, Westminster (Mo.), William Paterson, UW-River Falls, UW-Stevens Point and York.