BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The second-seeded Illinois Wesleyan University women's basketball team travels to King Arena for a semifinal game against fifth-seeded Augustana College Friday night, Feb. 28, in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Tournament. Tipoff between the Titans and Vikings is scheduled for 5 p.m. on the campus of Wheaton College.
Illinois Wesleyan closed out the regular season with a 70-62 win at Carthage, Feb. 22, and with some help from around the league secured the No. 2 seed and a first round bye in the tournament. The Titans enter the CCIW tourney with a 17-8 overall record. Augustana posted back-to-back wins to wrap up the regular season and earn the No. 5 seed. The Vikings sit at 14-12 on the year following an upset of No. 4-seeded Millikin in Decatur, Feb. 25.
Fans can tune into the games via live stats or live stream, while Derek Bohlmann and Marsha Moody will also have the call on 98.3 FM WEXG. Links on how to follow along can be found on the women's basketball schedule page of IWUsports.com.
CCIW TOURNEY TILTS AGAINST AUGIE: Friday night's CCIW semifinals matchup between Illinois Wesleyan and Augustana will mark just the second time the two have met in the conference tournament since it came into existence in 2003. In fact, the lone meeting took place in the semifinal round of the 2003 tourney. IWU bounced Augie 68-59 to advance to the championship game, before winning the conference tournament title with a 54-53 win over Wheaton.
IWU AND THE CCIW TOURNAMENT: Illinois Wesleyan will make its 16th CCIW Tournament appearance since the league began holding a tournament in 2003. Over that time, the Titans have gone 22-7 in CCIW Tournament games and have won eight tournament championships.
HISTORY OF THE NO. 2 SEED: The No. 2 seed has compiled a 15-15 overall record in the CCIW Tournament from 2003 to 2019. Teams seeded No. 2 have won the tournament twice, Wheaton in 2004 and Illinois Wesleyan just last season.
ALL-CCIW SELECTIONS: A trio of Titans garnered All-CCIW honors when the league office announced its postseason awards Tuesday, Feb. 25. Kendall Sosa and Sydney Shanks pulled in first team honors, while Riley Brovelli snagged a spot on the second team.
Sosa, a candidate for the conference's player of the year, was a three-time CCIW Player of the Week awardwinner. A unanimous first team selection, Sosa led the league in scoring at 20.0 points per game.
Shanks became just the seventh Titan all-time to reel in first team honors multiple times in a career. She was second in the league in steals with 57 and averaged 12.6 points and 5.6 rebounds per game in the regular season.
Rounding out the All-CCIW honorees, Brovelli finished the regular season second in the conference with 225 rebounds and third in blocks (39). She posted nine double-doubles and was named to the D3hoops.com Team of the Week earlier this season.
REWRITING THE RECORD BOOK: As a team, the Titans have recorded 108 blocks this season. The Titans' 108 rejections are the most all-time and one better than the previous record set by the 2018-19 squad. Riley Brovelli has tallied 39 blocks, the second-most all-time, and the most since Shelby Jackson set the record with 43 during the 2013-14 campaign. Meanwhile, Catie Eck's 29 rejections are fourth-most in IWU single season laurels. Moreover, it marks the first time in program history two players have notched 25+ blocks in the same season.
Individually, junior Kendall Sosa has put together one of the most prolific scoring seasons by a Titan in program history. Through 25 games, she has scored 500 points, second-most in single season history and are second to only Olivia Lett's record setting 719-point season in 2011-12. Her 63 made three-pointers are tied for 10th-most in single season annals.
THE ONLY STARTING FIVE TO DO IT: Kendall Sosa, Sydney Shanks, Riley Brovelli, Brooke Lansford, and Samantha Munroe have lead the Titans' offense this season as one of the best scoring lineups in the league. In fact, IWU is the only team in the conference with five players ranked inside the CCIW top-25 in scoring. Sosa tops the league at 20.0 points a game, while Shanks sits eighth (12.6), Brovelli and Lansford are tied for 18th at 9.8 ppg, and Munroe sits tied for 24th at 8.3 points per contest.
TRYING TO JOIN THE CLUB: With seven games to play in the regular season, junior Kendall Sosa is on the verge of becoming just the third Titan all-time to average 20+ points per game for a season. Currently, the junior guard owns a 20.0 points per game average, the best in the CCIW and the 25th-best nationally.
Should Sosa break the 20-point plateau, she will join Lila Naffziger and Olivia Lett as the only other Titans to average 20+ ppg for a season. Naffziger did so in 1979-80, averaging a program record 25.4 ppg, and Lett (21.8 ppg) accomplished the feat in 2011-12.
ALL-TIME AGAINST AUGIE: Illinois Wesleyan and Augustana share a long history that dates back to the 1976-77 campaign. The Titans hold the upper hand in the 81-game series, 47-34, and have won six of the last seven meetings.
The two split the regular season games, with the home team coming out victorious in both. Augustana come out on top 86-80 in Rock Island when the two teams tangled at Carver, Dec. 15. Kendall Sosa scored 29 points and Riley Brovelli posted a 15-point, 14-rebound double-double, but the Vikings shot 50 percent from the floor and used a 48-36 edge in the paint to hand the Titans a six-point setback. Illinois Wesleyan bested Augie 83-57 for a Senior Day win, Feb. 8, in the Shirk Center. Four players scored in double figures for IWU, paced by 15-point efforts by Brooke Lansford and Sosa.
SCOUTING REPORT - AUGUSTANA: The fifth-seeded Vikings sit at 14-12 on the season and finished league play with an 8-8 record. Augustana closed out the regular season with wins over Carthage and North Park to nab the No. 5 spot in the tournament and won its third straight with a 76-69 quarterfinals triumph at No. 4 Millikin, Feb. 25.
Alexis Jones leads the Vikings at 15.5 points per game, while also pulling down a conference-best 11.0 rebounds a contest and handing out a team-high 3.4 assists per game. Mia Lambert is also averaging in double figures at 10.4 points per game, while Lauren Hall adds 7.2 boards per contest.
As a team the Vikings are shooting just 39.4 percent on the season and connecting on 32.7 percent of their three-pointers. Augustana has turned opponents over 432 times and has recorded 211 steals, while holding opponents to 67.7 points per game.
SHARING IS CARING: A key to the Titans success through 25 games of the season has been their selflessness. Illinois Wesleyan has dished out 417 assists, the second-most in the CCIW and the 25th-most in the country. IWU's 16.7 assists per game are 22nd-best in the country.
BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME: In CCIW play the Titans have took their play to another level. With 16 league games complete IWU leads the conference in scoring (76.6 ppg), scoring margin (+11.4), field goal percentage (44.9), turnover margin (+4.25), assists (16.81 apg), and steals (11.13 spg).
Illinois Wesleyan also led the league in attendance, as IWU averaged 388 fans per home game. Augustana (328 pg) is the only other team in the conference bringing in more than 270 per game. Nationally, the Titans hold the 16th-best crowd average in all of Division III.
HOT SHOTS: Illinois Wesleyan has scored 1,854 points this season, the most of any team in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin. Additionally, IWU's season point total is 44th nationally. Meanwhile, the Titans 74.2 points per game is best in the league and 34th in the country and their field goal percentage of 43.3 is 25th nationally.
Illinois Wesleyan is 15-3 when scoring 67-or-more points, compared to 2-5 when held under the 67-point mark.
THE 49TH YEAR OF IWU WOMEN'S HOOPS: Illinois Wesleyan has compiled a 662-475 overall record. IWU's .582 all-time win percentage includes a 306-190 CCIW mark.
ALL COMES DOWN TO CASHING IN: Free throws have been an indicator of the Titans' success in 2019-20. In fact, IWU is 10-1 when shooting 70 percent-or-better from the charity stripe compared to 6-7 when shooting less than 70 percent from the line. Additionally, Illinois Wesleyan is 11-2 when making 10-or-more free throws.
I'LL TAKE THREE-POINTERS FOR 100, ALEX: In Illinois Wesleyan's game against Wheaton, Jan. 22, junior Kendall Sosa became the 15th player in IWU history with 100+ career three-pointers made. Currently, the Bloomington, Ill. native's 120 career three-pointers are five behind Nina Anderson's 13th-ranked total of 125. Mallory Heydorn holds the program record with 281 career triples from 2005 to 2009.
ON THE HORIZON: With a win the Titans will advance to the CCIW Tournament Championship for the fourth straight season and the 14th time in program history, and square off with the winner of Friday's 7 p.m. semifinal between No. 1 Wheaton and No. 6 North Central. Tipoff of the championship game is scheduled for 7 p.m. in King Arena on the campus of Wheaton College.
