Men's Basketball | 2/6/2018 2:38:00 PM

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The Illinois Wesleyan men's and women's basketball teams play College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin games on Wednesday, Feb. 7, with the men (16-4, 9-2 CCIW) at home against Wheaton and the women's team (18-2, 11-0 CCIW) on the road against the Thunder.

Go here for links to all live coverage of the two games.
 
SOCIAL MEDIA: Follow the Titans on Twitter and Instagram (iwusports) and be sure to "like" Illinois Wesleyan University Athletics page on Facebook.
 
TITAN NOTES: Illinois Wesleyan is Nio. 17 in this week's D3hoops.com poll, down from No. 14 last week ... Of 416 teams in Division III stats, IWU is 31st with 10.2 3-pointers per game and 22nd with a 1.38 assist/turnover ratio. The Titans are 21st with just 11.2 turnovers per game ... In CCIW play only, IWU leads the league in scoring margin (+10.1) and rebound margin (+3.5) ... In D-III, Brady Rose is 24th in scoring (22.4 ppg), 46th with 322 field goal tries and 47th in field goals made (156). Rose is 44th all-time at IWU with 987 career points, just behind Andrew Ziemnik (991, 2010-14) ... IWU has a 3-pointer in 622 straight games (D-III record) dating back to an 86-76 win at North Park on Jan. 28, 1996.

SCOUTING THE THUNDER: Wheaton was 11-3 before going 3-3 since Jan. 13 ... In CCIW play only, Wheaton leads the league in scoring (84.8), field goal shooting (.482), and 3-pointers made (10.91) ... Aston Francis is fifth in the nation in scoring (26.7) and first in both 3-pointers made (4.5) and attempted (246). He has scored 40+ three times this year and had 45 at Elmhurst on Dec. 9...Ricky Samuelson leads the nation with a .554 3-point percentage.

COACHES: In his 12th season at IWU, Ron Rose has a 222-107 overall mark (.675) with a 106-59 CCIW ledger. He is third in wins at IWU, behind Dennie Bridges (667-319, 1965-01) and Jack Horenberger (264-212, 1945-65) ... In his ninth season at Wheaton, Mike Schauer has a 70-55 conference record and 144-93 overall mark.

THE SERIES: Illinois Wesleyan has won 10 of the last 12 vs. Wheaton, has an 82-45 lead in the series (since 1946) and has won 32 of the last 39 played in Bloomington since 1979...IWU once trailed in the series, 19-7, so has won 75 of the last 101 games.

3-POINT RANKINGS: Brady Rose is No. 10 all-time at IWU with 137 3-pointers. Four other current Titans rank in the top 45 in career 3-pointers made. They are:
#28. 79 - Colin Bonnett (71 games) - 2015-18
#36. 66 - Nick Coleman (44 games) - 2015-18
#39. 56 - Jaylen Beasley (80 games) - 2014-18
#44. 45 - Zach Knobloch (20 games) - 2017-18

HOME COOKING: Illinois Wesleyan is 7-2 at home this season and has a 22-year Shirk Center record of 258-46 (.847) ... In the past six years (2009-17), IWU is 98-17 at home.

FAN BUS: For details on the fan bus, call Gene at 309-663-1224.

NEXT UP: Saturday is "Seniors' Night" for IWU basketball, both men and women.
 
THE GAME: The No. 14-ranked Illinois Wesleyan women's basketball team (18-2, 11-0 first place in CCIW) visits Wheaton College (17-4, 10-2 second place in CCIW) at King Arena at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 7.
 
TITAN NOTES: As a team, IWU is No. 2 nationally of 450 D-III teams in scor­ing offense, No. 3 in assist/turnover ratio, No. 6 in field-goal percentage, and No. 6 in turnover margin ... In the CCIW, Illinois Wesleyan boasts the highest scoring margin in the league at +32.6 points per game ... The Titans also lead the CCIW in field-goal percentage at .502. Senior Molly McGraw has 1,424 career points, ranking No. 2 in Titan records. She is No. 4 all-time in shots made (558) … Senior Rebekah Ehresman has 1,113 career points, which is No. 14 in IWU records. Also in school records, she ranks No. 5 in free throws (289), No. 14 in rebounds (538) and No. 5 in assists (328) ... Ehresman is No. 2 nationally in assist/turnover ratio (3.43) ... Junior Maddie Merritt's .842 career free throw percentage is the best in an IWU uniform (272 of 323) ... Freshman Raven Hughes needs 25 more made baskets to qualify for the IWU single-season field goal percentage record. Currently she is shooting .694 from the field (75 of 108). The record (minimum 100 made) is .629 by Stacey Arlis (198-315, 2010-11).

STOLEN GOODS: On the back of Ehresman's 3.35 steals per game, IWU ranks No. 14 nationally in steals per game with 14.5 ... Among top 25 teams, the Titans rank third in steals behind 11th-ranked Christopher Newport and 23srd-ranked Marymount (Va.). With 67 steals on the season, Ehresman trails Illinois Wesleyan's single-season steals record holder, Christina Solari (2009-10) by 21 steals ... With 273 career steals to date, Ehresman is the program leader in steals.

FROM DEEP: During the conference season, junior Nina Anderson has made a league-leading 2.55 3-pointers per game in addition to leading the conference in 3-point percentage at .475 ... As a junior Anderson is having her best shooting season to date shooting .456 from the field, an increase from a .359 performance as a sophomore ... Freshman Kendall Sosa ranks second in the conference's 3-point shooting ranks at .444 percent with freshman Sam Munroe sitting sixth at .393.
 
BEHIND ENEMY LINES: Winners of 11 straight, the Thunder face-off with the Titans ranked No. 32 in Division III in scoring offense with 74.8 points per game and No. 85 in scoring defense at 56.5 points per game ... Led by Devin Kyler and Jill Berg the Thunder lead the country in blocked shots per game at 9.0 ... Named the CCIW "Player of the Week" twice this season, Hannah Frazier leads the Thunder in scoring at 14.8 points per game ... Maggie Dansdill is second on the team in scoring at 12.3 points per game ... Kyler does a bit of everything for Wheaton scoring 9.3 points per game in addition to a team-high 8.1 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game ...Kelly Lawson averages 9.7 points per game 
 
THE SERIES: Dating back to 1974, Illinois Wesleyan trails Wheaton 26-50 in the all-time series. The Titans are 3-7 against the Thunder in their last 10 meetings. Earlier this season, Illinois Wesleyan defeated Wheaton by a final score of 88-81 from the Shirk Center.
 
COACHES: Illinois Wesleyan's Mia Smith is in her 20th season and has an overall record of 382-161 (.703) with a CCIW mark of 206-73 (.738) ... In his eighth season as head coach of the Thunder, Kent Madsen has a career record of 166-47 with a 89-23 mark in conference play.
 
WHAT'S NEXT: The Titans return to action on Saturday Feb. 10 for a home match-up with Carroll University at 7 p.m. Carroll is home to this week's CCIW "Player of the Week" Brittney Wald who averaged 22.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per game last week.