ST. LOUIS, Mo. – No. 21-ranked Illinois Wesleyan survived a cold-shooting second half and got clutch late free throws to earn a 73-72 win at No. 17-ranked Washington U. in St. Louis on Saturday, Dec. 17.
 
The Titans improved to 7-2 overall while the Bears are 6-3 and have lost two in a row and three of their last four games.
 
The Titans shot a blistering .690 from the field (20 of 29) in the first half and made 7 of 13 3-pointers (.538). IWU had a lead of 14 at 50-36 with 1:04 before intermission. But Illinois Wesleyan managed only .280 shooting from the floor (7 of 25) in the second half to finish at .500 for the game (27 of 54).
IWU was 0-for-6 from 3-point range in the final 20 minutes.
 
Trailing 50-40 at halftime, the Bears went on a 21-12 run to start the second half to close to within one at 62-61 and took a lead of 65-64 with 7:06 to play, their first lead since being up 11-10 with 14:37 to play in the first half.
 
The Bears held a 70-69 lead before junior Brady Rose netted two free throws to put IWU ahead 71-70 with 58 seconds remaining. WashU's Matt Highsmith missed the front end of a bonus free throw situation with 31 seconds left and Titan senior Alec Bausch knocked down a pair of clinching free throws with 20 seconds left to stake IWU to 73-70 lead.
 
The Titan defense held the Bears from getting a 3-point shot, allowing a Highsmith bucket in the paint and then in-bounding the ball before WashU could call a timeout.
 
"These [kinds of games] are the great team builders," said IWU head coach Ron Rose in a postgame interview with WJBC Radio. "We played exceptionally well in the first half, but their defense in the second half was tremendous. For us to keep our composure, withstand their run and to play the way we did in the last minute and a half was great. It's the kind of game we can build on in the future."

Senior Trevor Seibring had a team-high 17 points, 13 of those in the first half, while senior Andy Stempel and Rose each had 14 points. Bausch had a team-high six rebounds.

Sophomore Nick Coleman sniped in three first half 3-pointers and tied with Rose for team assist leader with five.

Andrew Sanders had 16 points and a game-high nine rebounds for WashU, who outrebounded IWU, 32-28.

NOTES: Illinois Wesleyan now leads the all-time series with WashU, 22-16, and have won six of the last nine games since the 2009-10 season.

WHAT'S NEXT: Illinois Wesleyan has a home game against UAA member U. of Chicago (7-1) on Tuesday, Dec. 20, at 7 p.m. The Maroons were 93-77 winners over Monmouth on Saturday at the Rhodes College Holiday Classic in Memphis, Tenn. The Maroons are among teams receiving votes in the D3hoops.com poll and have won seven straight since losing their season-opener to North Park, 88-87, including three games when they have never trailed.