BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The Illinois Wesleyan men's and women's basketball teams play College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin games on Wednesday, Jan. 24, with the men on the road at Elmhurst and the women hosting North Central.

Go here for links to all live coverage of the two games.
 
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THE GAME: The No. 17-ranked Illinois Wesleyan women's basketball team (15-2 overall, 8-0 CCIW) play at 7 p.m. at the Shirk Center against North Central College (4-13, 2-6 CCIW). 

TITAN NOTES: As a team, IWU is No. 5 nationally of 450 D-III teams in scoring offense, No. 5 in assist/turnover ratio, and No. 14 in field-goal percentage ... Senior Molly McGraw has 1,377 career points, ranking No. 5 in Titan records. She is No. 6 all-time in shots made (540) ... Senior Rebekah Ehresman has 1,090 career points, which is No. 14 in IWU records. Also in school records, she ranks No. 6 in free throws (283), No. 14 in rebounds (525) and No. 6 in assists (312) ... Junior Maddie Merritt's .846 career free throw percentage is the best in an IWU uniform (259 of 306).

TAKING CARE: Senior Rebekah Ehresman has been one of the best players in the country at taking care of the ball this season having committed just 25 turnovers in a team-high 454 minutes played. With a team best 80 assists so far, Ehresman ranks No. 2 nationally in assist/turnover ratio (3.2). NCAA Division III is led in assist/turnover ratio by Brandi Vallely (3.78) of Muhlenberg College.

HUGH-GE POTENTIAL: Led by University High School product Raven Hughes, the Illinois Wesleyan women's basketball team boasts four freshmen seeing major playing time during the 2017-18 season. Averaging 19.6 minutes off the bench, Hughes is shooting .678 for the season which is good for 8.5 points per game. Sam Munroe and Kendall Sosa have emerged as two of the top 3-point shooters on the team, shooting .467 and .426 respectively. Riley Brovelli has provided valuable minutes in the post, spelling junior Maddie Merritt for 11.4 minutes per game.
 
BEHIND ENEMY LINES: North Central ranks No. 237 in the national D-III stats in scoring offense (62.2) and is No. 423 in scoring defense (75.6) ... The Cardinals have attempted the fifth-most 3-pointers in the country this season (535), but have converted on just .260 percent of their attempts from distance … Mayson Whipple leads the team in points (11.2) and assists (3.4) per game.
 
THE SERIES: Dating back to 1979, Illinois Wesleyan holds a 43-29 advantage over North Central. Illinois Wesleyan has won three of their last five meetings. IWU defeated North Central by a final score of 94-47 on Dec. 9 this season.
 
COACHES: Illinois Wesleyan's Mia Smith is in her 20th season and has an overall record of 379-161 (.701) with a CCIW mark of 203-73 (.735)... In her eighth season at North Central, Michelle Roof has an overall record of 93-104 with a 43-65 mark in the CCIW. Prior to North Central, Roof coached for five seasons at Aurora University where she compiled a record of 70-61.
 
HOME COURT: IWU has a 212-70 record at the Shirk Center and, since 2008, IWU has a home record of 95-26 (.785).
 
THE GAME: The No. 18-ranked Illinois Wesleyan men's basketball team (14-3, 7-1 CCIW) plays at Elmhurst (11-6, 4-4 CCIW) at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 24.
 
ABOUT ILLINOIS WESLEYAN: IWU is ranked No. 18 (up six spots from No. 24) in the current D3hoops.com poll, its first appearance in the poll this season ... Of 416 teams in Division III statistics, IWU is 32nd with 10.2 3-pointers per game, 50th in 3-pointers attempted (461) and 13th with a 1.42 assist/turnover ratio. The Titans are 13th with just 10.9 turnovers per game ... Of all D-III players, Brady Rose is 23rd in scoring (22.9 ppg). Grinnell's Vinny Curta leads D-III with a 33.4 scoring mark. Rose ranks 20th with 279 field goal tries and 21st in field goals made (139) … Rose is 51st at the school with 929 career points, just behind David Caldwell (933, 1987-91). He is 12th all-time at IWU with 132 3-pointers, just behind Mark Aubry (135, 1992-95) ... IWU has a 3-pointer in 619 straight games dating back to an 86-76 win at North Park on Jan. 28, 1996.
 
MORE 3-POINT RANKINGS: Brady Rose is No. 12 all-time at IWU with 132 3-pointers. Four other current Titans rank in the top 50 in career 3-pointers made. They are:
# 30. 74 - Colin Bonnett (68 games) - 2015-18; 74 - John Lipic (105 games) - 1990-94 
# 37. 64 - Nick Coleman (41 games) - 2015-18 
# 41. 52 - Jaylen Beasley (77 games) - 2014-18 
# 49. 37 - Sean Dwyer (77 games) - 2006-10; 37 - Zach Knobloch (17 games) - 2017-18; 37 - Andrew Gilmore (42 games) - 2005-08 
 
SCOUTING THE BLUEJAYS: The Bluejays erased a 16-point first-half deficit and outscored North Central, 47-30 in the second half to get a 91-77 at home Saturday. Jeremy Ireland had 21 points, Lavon Thomas scored 17 with Jake Rhode adding 18 and Lance Gardner getting 15. Elmhurst shot 54.8 percent from the floor (34-of-62) and connected on 13-of-27 3-point tries (48.1 percent). The 13 3-pointers was the most the team has made in one game since an 85-82 win over Millikin during the 2010-11 season. The Bluejays committed just seven turnovers in the victory while also scoring 14 points off of 10 North Central turnovers … In CCIW games only, Elmhurst is second in scoring at 80.4 points per game and eighth (of nine) in defense, allowing 79.2 .. The Bluejays lead the league with a 4.2 rebound margin (35.5-31.3) … Ireland has nine double-doubles this season and is N0. 56 in the country with 9.5 free throws made per game … Rhode is No. 23 with 5.6 assists per contest.
 
COACHES: In his 12th season at IWU, Ron Rose has a 220-106 overall mark (.670) with a 105-59 CCIW ledger. He is third in wins at IWU, behind Dennie Bridges (667-319, 1965-01) and Jack Horenberger (264-212, 1945-65) ... John Baines is in his fifth year at Elmhurst and has a 75-49 overall record and a 33-33 conference record. He was a member of the 1997 Illinois Wesleyan national championship team.
 
THE SERIES: Dating back to 1946, IWU leads the series vs. the Bluejays, 108-24. The Titans have won 18 of the last 26 meetings, including an 87-75 decision at the Shirk Center on Jan. 6  ... Elmhurst has only won twice at the Shirk Center, the last time on Jan. 17, 2009 (90-72).
 
HOME COOKING: Illinois Wesleyan is 6-2 at home this season and has a 22-year Shirk Center record of 257-46 (.847) ... In the past six years (2009-17), IWU is 97-17 at home.