BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- In a back and forth game that saw each team lead by as many as 13 points and six points, the Illinois Wesleyan men's basketball team lost an 85-83 decision to North Central on Wednesday, Jan. 9 at the Shirk Center.
The Titans' record is now 9-6 overall and 2-4 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin while the Cardinals improved to 13-3 this season and 5-2 in league play.
Senior
Brady Rose led four Titans in double-figure scoring with 24 points while sophomore
Doug Wallen added 16 points. Sophomore
Grant Wolfe and senior
Colin Bonnett each added 13 points.
Wallen and Wolfe each had six rebounds as the Titans held a 33-25 edge on the boards.
The Cardinals were paced by the 26 point effort from senior Tommy Koth, whose previous career-high was 14, while Mike Pollack came off the bench to score 15. Connor Raridon had 13 points and 13 assists, Matt Cappelletti scored 12 with a team-high six boards and Blaise Meredith netted 11.
The game had 11 ties and 10 lead changes. In the first half, IWU built up a 13-point lead with 3:48 before halftime and took a 43-38 lead into the locker room. The Cardinals battled back and grabbed a six-point lead of their own on two occasions, the latest being 62-56 with 11:39 left.
With the game knotted at 71-71, Wolfe and Wallen made 3-pointers and the Titan lead was a seemingly comfortable eight points at 80-72 with 2:02 left.
But North Central got a 3-pointer from Pollack and a conventional three-point play from Koth to bring the Cardinals within two points at 80-78 at the 1:16 mark.
Two free throws by Koth evened the game at 80-80 prior to two Rose free throws, giving IWU an 82-80 advantage with 31 seconds left. Pollack then made a 3-pointer, his fourth of the game, giving North Central an 83-82 lead with 18 seconds left. After an IWU miss and foul on a defensive rebound, Meredith made two free throws to put the Cardinals up 85-82 with 7.6 seconds to play. A late Rose free throw provided the Titans with their final point.
The Titans finished at .537 from the floor (29 of 54) and made nine of 17 (.529) from 3-point land. IWU sank 16 of 23 from the free throw line (.696). North Central was 26 of 51 from the field (.510) and knocked home 14 of 27 3-pointers (.519, a season-high against IWU) while making 19 of 25 free throws (.760).
What's Next?
The Titans play at Millikin (8-6, 2-4 CCIW) in a 4 p.m. game on Saturday, Jan. 12 in Decatur ... Millikin suffered a 68-62 loss at home to Wheaton on Wednesday. Calvin Fisher and Zach Fisher each had 12 points for Millikin and Jordan Cunningham had 10 points with a game-high 11 rebounds.
