WAUKESHA, Wis. – A valiant comeback effort fell short as the Illinois Wesleyan men's basketball team lost a 67-63 decision at Carroll University at Van Male Fieldhouse in Waukesha, Wis., on Saturday, Jan. 21.
The Titans are now 12-5 overall and 4-4 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin while the Pioneers improved to 10-7 overall and 5-3 in the CCIW.
As a team, the Titans were limited in this game to season-lows in points (63), field goals made (22), 3-point field goals made (6) and assists (8).
With 8:03 to play in the game, Illinois Wesleyan trailed by 15 at 52-37 before going on a 24-11 run to close to within two at 63-61 following two free throws by junior
Brady Rose with 1:00 left.
IWU trailed 65-53 with 13 seconds left when Carroll committed a turnover, giving the Titans a chance to tie or take the lead, but a missed shot led to a Carroll rebound and two additional Pioneer free throws provided the final scoring.
"For the last 10 minutes of the game, I loved my team, but was disappointed in the first 30 minutes," IWU head coach
Ron Rose told WJBC Radio in a postgame interview. "We seemed to be slow-moving in the first 30 minutes and I think missed shots affected our energy level. With a heightened sense of urgency, we controlled everything the last six-seven minutes. I was proud of our guys to be in a position to be down two with ball with 13 seconds left. I tip my hat to Carroll .. they played very hard tonight and their switching defenses set us back. We just need to finish plays."
Sophomore
Colin Bonnett, who had nine straight points during the IWU comeback run, equaled his career-high in scoring with 19 points and Rose added 17. Senior
Alec Bausch was the Titans' leading rebounder with six.
The Pioneers had four players score in double digits led by 18 from Ben Widdes, who also collected 13 boards, and 15 points from Nick Penny.
Carroll had a substantial 37-29 rebounding edge and IWU got just three offensive rebounds. Each team admitted to 14 turnovers. IWU was 6-of-26 from 3-point range (.231) and was 22 of 53 from the floor (.415) while the Pioneers shot .404 from the field (21-of-52) and made .318 from outside the arc (7-of-22).
What's Next?
The second half of the CCIW season gets underway on Wednesday, Jan. 25 with a 7 p.m. road game at No. 9-ranked North Park University in Chicago. The Vikings (13-4 overall, 6-2 CCIW) beat the Titans 72-68 on Dec. 7 at the Shirk Center.
