ELMHURST, Ill. -- The Illinois Wesleyan men's basketball team lost their College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin opener for this second straight year, falling at No. 6-ranked Elmhurst by a 78-64 count at R.A. Faganel Hall in Elmhurst, Ill., on Saturday, Jan. 2.

Both playing their league openers, the Titans are 6-6 overall and the Bluejays improved to 11-1. IWU also lost its conference opener a year ago, 78-72 at North Central.

The Titans' largest lead was 18-14 with 10:38 to go in the first half and IWU led 22-21 with 6:14 to go before the Bluejays had a 16-6 scoring advantage to take a commanding 37-28 lead with 1:46 left and held a 41-34 halftime edge.

The Bluejays extended their lead to as many as 12 at 48-36 with 16:57 to go but Illinois Wesleyan continued to chip away and got within five at 55-50 after an Andy Stempel basket with 8:41 remaining. IWU would get no closer, though, as Elmhurst led by as many as 16 late and won by 14. Elmhurst, picked to finish second in the preseason CCIW coaches' poll, led the game 73.2 percent of the time.

IWU senior Bryce Dolan hit four 3-pointers and finished with a team-high 17 while junior Trevor Seibring added 13 points with five assists and Joel Pennington scored 11 points. Junior Alec Bausch led IWU with 10 rebounds as the Titans were outrebounded, 44-35.

Kyle Wuest scored 19 to lead the Bluejays. Will Nixon had 17 points and 10 boards and Bryant Ackerman scored 15.

"I thought our guys gave great effort, but we just didn't finish enough plays," Illinois Wesleyan head coach Ron Rose told WJBC Radio in a postgame interview. "We gave up too many 3-pointers [seven-of-12] in the first half to their quality shooters ... We got some great looks but Nixon is a presence inside and a real important piece of their team ... If we continue to give this effort, we'll find the win column plenty of times the rest of the year."

What's Next?
Illinois Wesleyan will play its first home game since December 5 when they host Wheaton College at Dennie  Bridges Court at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 6 ... The Thunder was 4-7 overall heading into their first CCIW game of the year Saturday night at Augustana.