BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The Illinois Wesleyan men's basketball team celebrated "Seniors' Night" in a game they never trailed or were tied, a 77-67 victory over No. 13-nationally ranked Elmhurst at the Shirk Center on Saturday, Feb. 20.
 
The IWU win, coupled with a North Park 84-74 loss at home to North Central, gets the Titans the No. 4 seed in the CCIW tournament next weekend at Rock Island, Ill.. The Titans will play the No. 1 seed Vikings while No. 2 seed North Central will face No. 3 Elmhurst in the first Friday semifinal contest. The winners will play Saturday night with the champion earning the league's automatic bid into the NCAA Division III tournament
 
IWU (13-12 overall and 7-7 in the CCIW) has never won the conference tournament in eight tries and has a 6-8 record in the event.
 
On Saturday night, the Titans built up a 15-point halftime lead of 34-19 on 45 percent shooting (13 of 29) while limiting the Bluejays to only 25 percent from the field (7 of 28) and one for eight from beyond the arc.
 
In the second half Elmhurst made a run to get within 14 at 64-50 before a Bausch 3-pointer and a 3-point play from Joel Pennington got the Titans back up by 20 at 70-50 with 6:53 remaining.
 
Five players scored in double figures for the Titans, led by senior Bryce Dolan with 15 on 5-of-11 3-point shooting. Juniors Trevor Seibring and Andy Stempel added 12 points each with freshman Colin Bonnett and senior Joel Pennington each scoring 10.
 
The Titans were outrebounded by the Bluejays, 39-30, and Elmhurst committed 19 turnovers compared to 13 for IWU and those Bluejay turnovers led to 24 Titan points.
 
Pat Coleman and Erik Crittenden each scored 14 for Elmhurst with Kenny Payonk adding 10. Elmhurst improved greatly to 65 percent shooting in the second half (17 of 26) to finish at 44 percent in the game.