BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- Defensive stops were at a premium for the Illinois Wesleyan men's basketball team as it allowed 57 second half points and lost by a 92-81 score at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, on Saturday, Dec. 12.
The Titans are 4-3 and Loras, with their second straight win over Illinois Wesleyan in Dubuque, evened their season mark at 4-4. In the second half only, the Duhawks made 22 of 29 (.759) from the field and outscored IWU 57-41.
The Titans got 22 points and six rebounds from junior
Trevor Seibring and senior
Bryce Dolan knocked in 20 points. Junior
Alec Bausch had a game-hgh 10 rebounds as Illinois Wesleyan won the overall board war, 33-29.
Senior Mirko Grcic scored 26 points and snared nine rebounds to lead the Duhawks and junior Justin VanWambeke added 22 points, all but two in the second half, with eight assists. Â Â
"We scored 81 but it's hard to win when you give up 92 points," IWU head coach
Ron Rose told WJBC Radio in a postgame interview. "We didn't stop anybody, we had multiple opportunities and we didn't. (Loras) made some tough shots but they got some easy ones, too. We took a step backwards defensively in the second half tonight."
Illinois Wesleyan had a 40-30 lead with 2:00 to play in the first half before Loras closed the gap to five at 40-35 at the break. But the Duhawks came out of the locker toom and assumed a 52-46 lead with 13:37 to play, a 22-6 stretch in just over 8 1/2 minutes of playing time. A Dolan 3-pointer got the Titans even at 64-64 with 6:32 to play and a basket by junior
Andy Stempel gave IWU a 66-64 lead.
IWU led 71-68 with 4:33 to play, but Loras again went on a run of 9-2 to claim a 79-73 edge and held on through the remainder of the match.
Loras shot .655 (35 of 55) from the field in the game and IWU came in at a .484 clip (31 of 64). The Titans were nine of 30 from 3-point range (.300) and made 10 of 15 free throws (.667) while Loras was 18 of 22 from the line (.636). Loras got 31 bench points to 15 for Illinois Wesleyan.
NOTES: Illinois Wesleyan has a 3-2 all-time record against Loras and the only two losses have been in 2013 (80-75) and this year. The series goes back to 1992-Â-93.
WHAT'S NEXT? Illinois Wesleyan has very little time to prepare for their next foe, the University of Chicago, with the game at 7 p.m. Monday, Dec.14 at the Ratner Center in Chicago ... The Maroons are 6-2, have won five straight and are among those receiving votes in the D3hoops.com poll, ranking No. 27 ... Dating back to 1991-92, IWU has a 16-7 record in the series against the U. of Chicago. IWU won, 61-56 at the Shirk Center last year and has won four straight over the Maroons ... Chicago lost its season-opener at North Park, 72-66, and also lost to Mount Union, 74-58 ... Chicago has road wins over two College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin schools - North Central, 74-61, and Wheaton, 77-52 ... Jordan Smith is the team's leading scorer at 11.6 points per game, followed by Weller Perez at 11.1 and Alex Voss at 10.9 ... The Maroons outrebound opponents 43.9-Â-35.8 ... Mike McGrath is in his 17th season as head coach at Chicago and is the school's all-time leader in wins with an overall record of 243-172.
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