BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- Senior Brady Rose led four Titans in double figures with 24 points as the Illinois Wesleyan men's basketball team downed Carroll, 82-73, in the first round of the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin tournament on Tuesday, Feb. 19 at the Shirk Center. Go here for the CCIW tourney website.
The win was the seventh in a row for Illinois Wesleyan (18-8) and sets up a meeting with No. 3-nationally ranked Augustana (23-2) at 7 p.m. Friday in Rock Island. The Titans are the tourney's No. 4 seed and the Vikings are the No. 1 seed by virtue of winning the league title.
The other first round game saw third-seeded Wheaton come back from a halftime deficit to top Elmhurst 85-75, setting up the Thunder (19-7) against No. 2-seed North Central (20-5) in the 5 p.m. Friday semifinal. Go here for links to IWU live coverage.

In the Tuesday night win over Carroll, the second in four days over the Pios, sophomore Doug Wallen scored 17 points and had a game-high eight rebounds, senior Colin Bonnett added 16 points and senior Jason Gregoire contributed 11 points with four assists.

The Titans led 34-33 with 2:27 to go in the first half before Bonnett hit a basket and a 3-pointer to push the IWU lead to six at 39-33 with a half minute before intermission. With a 39-35 lead coming out of halftime, the Titans scored the first seven points of the final half to get a 46-35 lead and led by a double-digit margin almost the remainder of the game.
The second half lead was protected in part by junior Alex O'Neill, who scored eight points with three rebounds and four blocks in the second period.

Freshman Blake Williams, who came into the game averaging 5.1 points, poured in 19 points and Ray Pierce grabbed seven rebounds to lead Carroll, who outrebounded the Titans, 30-26.

A LOOK AHEAD: Illinois Wesleyan lost 67-60 (box score) at Augustana on Dec. 8 and lost at the Shirk Center on Jan. 19 by an 87-65 (box score) count ... The Vikings have won four in a row since their only CCIW loss at North Central, 68-63, on Jan. 31 ... Augustana's other loss this season came on Nov. 21 at Loras, 74-73, on two free throws with 0.1 left on the clock.