BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- Trailing by as many as 14 points early in the second half, the Illinois Wesleyan men's basketball team battled all the way back to tie the game late before losing a 61-59 decision to Millikin at the Shirk Center on Wednesday, Feb. 3.
The loss sends the IWU record in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin to 5-5 and overall to 11-10 while Millikin snapped a nine-game conference losing streak with its first league win and is 7-14 overall. The win ended Millikin's 13-game losing streak vs. the Titans dating back to February 2009 and the Big Blue's last win at the Shirk Center was an 84-82 victory on Jan. 10, 2007.
The Titans shot 45 percent from the field, connecting on a season-low 18 field goals in 40 attempts, also a season-low. The five 3-pointers and 13 3-point attempts were also low marks for IWU this season, as was the rebound total of 27 as Millikin also snared 27 boards.
Junior
Trevor Seibring had 19 points and got five rebounds and junior
Alec Bausch came off the bench to score 10 points and also got five boards.
Millikin was led by the 21 points of senior TJ Griffin and the 13 points from sophomore TJ Sims. Junior Bryn Agnew had a game-high six rebounds for the Big Blue.
Illinois Wesleyan led by as many as four early in the game and held their last lead of the game, 21-19, after a 3-pointer by
Austin Amann with 5:53 before halftime. But the Big Blue went on a 19-5 run over that final stretch to get a 38-26 lead at intermission.
The Big Blue scored first in the final period to get their biggest lead of 14 at 40-26 with 17:48 to play in the game. But the Titans battled back to finally tie the issue at 57-57 after a basket and free throw by Seibring with 3:23 to go. A Millikin basket by senior Tommy Pilackas to go ahead 59-57 (2:01 left) was answered by two free throws by junior
Andy Stempel to tie the game for the fifth and final time at 59-59 with 1:42 left.
Pilackas made the game's last bucket with 44 seconds left and the Titans had two missed 3-point tries and a turnover in the final 22 seconds in efforts to win the game.
IWU committed 12 turnovers to 10 for Millikin and both teams scored 26 of their points from the lane.
What's Next?Illinois Wesleyan plays at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 6 at No. 13-nationally ranked North Central (15-6, 8-2 CCIW). The Cardinals were 76-68 losers at home to No. 2-nationally ranked Augustana on Wednesday ... North Central rallied from a large deficit at the Shirk Center to win a 96-89 game in overtime against Illinois Wesleyan on Jan. 16.
