WHEATON, Ill. – A 45 point second half effort lifted the Illinois Wesleyan men's basketball team to a 75-65 conference victory over Wheaton at King Arena on Wednesday, Jan. 27.
 
IWU won their fourth consecutive game over Wheaton and improved to 10-9 and 4-4 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin while the Thunder dropped to 5-14 and 1-7 in the CCIW.
 
The Titans would take a 7-6 lead with 14:06 left in the first half before an 8-0 Thunder run would give Wheaton a 14-7 lead. Wheaton would hold a seven point lead throughout the rest of the first half and would lead IWU by a score of 40-31 at intermission.
 
After leading by a score of 45-39 with 16:36 remaining in the game, Wheaton would slowly see their lead evaporate as the Titans would take the lead for the first time in the second half at 53-51 with 10:44 remaining. The Titans would build their lead all the way up to 10 points (69-59) on a Colin Bonnett three-point field goal with 5:49 left in the game. Wheaton would close the gap one last time to 69-63 with 2:34 remaining before IWU closed the game by outscoring the Thunder 6-2 down the stretch.
 
Junior Andy Stempel paced the Titans with 14 points and five rebounds while Trevor Seibring added 13 points and four rebounds. Senior Bryce Dolan was the only other Illinois Wesleyan player in double figures with 12 points.
 
Wheaton was led by senior guard Jonathan Bernsten who scored a game-high 19 points and had eight assists. Michael Berg recorded the game's only double-double as the senior forward scored 15 points and pulled down 15 rebounds.  
 
IWU held a 38-30 rebounding advantage and grabbed 11 offensive boards leading to seven second chance points. The Illinois Wesleyan bench poured in 31 points compared to only 11 for the Wheaton bench as each team recorded two blocks.
 
What's Next?
IWU looks for their second season sweep of the season with a road game at Carthage on Saturday, Jan. 30. Earlier this season, The Titans hauled in 47 rebounds in a 78-52 victory at home over the Red Men. Carthage lost at North Park in overtime by a score of 93-86.