ATLANTA, Ga. – Illinois Wesleyan's
Brady Rose knocked in 26 points and sank five 3-pointers to propel the Titan men's basketball team to an 81-74 win over Birmingham-Southern College in the Emory Classic at the Woodruff P.E. Center in Atlanta, Ga., on Friday, December 29.
Illinois Wesleyan improved to 9-3 overall while the Panthers are 3-8.
"I liked that our guys really competed this afternoon, had a different mindset and played with much better purpose than we did yesterday," IWU head coach
Ron Rose told WJBC's Eric Stock in a postgame interview. "A lot more of our shots came within the offense and it was good to see Brady get untracked from behind the arc."
Junior
Colin Bonnett added 20 points and freshman
Grant Wolfe scored his career-high of 10 in the victory while sophomore
Miles Curry snared a game-high nine rebounds, also a career-best. The Titans had a commanding 44-30 rebounding edge with a 19-12 lead on offensive boards.
"Grant is just going to get better and better," Rose said. "I thought he was outstanding today - he's a tough kid and he can shoot it."
IWU finished at 44.9 percent from the field and made 10 of 23 3-point efforts (43.5) while the Panthers shot 43.1 from the field and connected on 8 of 24 long balls. Playing shorthanded due to some players missing with the flu, IWU battled through 23 fouls and the loss of
Jaylen Beasley with five personals. "It's a good thing we play four to five post players because of foul trouble today," Rose said.
Alex O'Neill, Curry,
Danny Baker all finished with three and
Tyler Burdine picked up four.
Trailing 63-52 with 8:53 remaining, the Panthers had an 11-1 run that cut the lead to one point at 64-63 with 6:54. But baskets by Bonnett and a 3-pointer by Rose stemmed the tide and put IWU back ahead by six at 69-63. Birmingham Southern closed to within four within a minute to play but could get no closer.
Illinois Wesleyan led by as many as 12 in the first half (40-28 with 3:06 to go) and took a 43-36 lead into the halftime locker room. IWU sniped in 43.8 percent of its 3-point tries (7 of 16) and was 17 of 37 from the field (45.9 percent) while the Panthers shot 42.9 from the floor (12 of 28) and made 5 of 13 treys (38.5).
Harrison Deneka had 17 points and eight rebounds for the Panthers.
What's Next?
The Titans return to College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin action for the rest of the regular season next Wednesday, Jan. 3, with a 7 p.m. game against No. 3-ranked Augustana College at the Shirk Center … The Vikings are 2-0 in the CCIW and 9-1 overall ahead of a game at No. 10 Washington U. in St. Louis Thursday night.
