2016 CCIW Tournament Website

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. – The Illinois Wesleyan men's basketball team took No. 1-nationally ranked Augustana to overtime before losing an 83-74 decision in the semifinals of the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin tournament on Friday, Feb. 26, in Rock Island.
 
The Titans' season ends with a 13-13 record while Augustana continues with a 25-1 mark. The Vikings will host Elmhurst in the CCIW tournament final on Saturday. The No. 3-seeded Bluejays (21-5) were 60-58 winners over North Central in the first semifinal.
 
Senior Joel Pennington scored 20 points to lead IWU and knocked in five 3-pointers as the Titans made 12 of 24 3-point attempts. Junior Andy Stempel scored 15 points while senior Bryce Dolan and junior Alec Bausch each had 11.
 
Turnovers hurt Illinois Wesleyan as the Titans were guilty of 21 miscues compared to nine for the Vikings. The Titans outrebounded the Vikings, 33-32, as senior Ryan Coyle led with eight boards and junior Trevor Seibring collected six.
 
Illinois Wesleyan led 34-28 at halftime and had a 51-45 edge with 11:58 left in the game. Augustana went on an 11-2 run to grab a 56-63 lead and the Vikings went on to build up a 63-56 lead with 3:55 to play in the game. But Illinois Wesleyan battled back with a 7-0 run and tied the game at 63-63 with 1:30 remaining. Neither team scored in the final 90 seconds and the game went into overtime.
 
The Vikings jumped out early in the OT session with a 12-3 momentum and led 75-66 with 1:34 left.
 
Five players scored in double digits for Augustana, led by 16 from Ben Ryan, who also got eight rebounds. Tayvian Johnson scored 14 with seven boards, Jawan Straughter had 13 points with Hunter Hill and Pierson Wofford adding 12 points each.
 
"I'm disappointed we didn't win," said IWU head coach Ron Rose in a postgame interview with WJBC Radio. "I'm very proud of this group … we developed a level of toughness the last month and showed a lot of heart and battle tonight. After we fell behind late in the game, we took care of ball better and battled back to get to overtime. We have nothing to be ashamed of … we played hard and left it all on the court."

NOTES: Eight of Illinois Wesleyan's 13 losses were to teams ranked in the top 20 in the current national rankings - three losses to No. 1 Augustana, two to No. 11 North Central and one loss each to No. 17 Elmhurst, No. 2 Benedictine and No. 10 Ohio Wesleyan ... The 252 3-point field goals this season is third most in an IWU single-season, behind 302 (2013-14) and 276 (2014-15) ... This year's 13-13 (.500) record snaps a string of six consecutive 20-win seasons for Titan men's basketball and ends a streak of six consecutive NCAA Division III appearances ... The last time IWU lost more than 12 games was in 2006-07 (11-14) ... With seven straight CCIW tourney appearances, IWU has never won the league's postseason event, first played in 2006, and now has a 6-9 record in nine tournament appearances ... Since the tournament was begun, no champion has ever come out of the No. 3 or 4 seed. The No. 1 seeded team has won six times and the No. 2 seed has won four titles.