NAPERVILLE, Ill. - The third-seeded Illinois Wesleyan University men's basketball team outlasted No. 2 seeded Augustana College 74-70, Friday, Feb. 28, to advance to the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Championship. Augustana finishes its season with an overall record of 18-8, while IWU improved to 19-8 and will play in the title game for the first time since 2015.

A pair of free throws by sophomore Peter Lambesis (Mt. Prospect, Ill.-St. Viator) gave Illinois Wesleyan its first lead of the game, 67-66, with 1:36 to play and was followed by a timely steal by senior Bernie Coderre (Flossmoor, Ill.-Homewood-Flossmoor HS). The heads-up defensive play by the senior captain made way for clutch three-point by sophomore Matthew Leritz (St. Louis, Mo.-St. Louis University HS) to push the Titan lead to four with 55 seconds remaining.

Augustana's Austin Elledge cut IWU's edge to one, 70-69, but sophomore Cory Noe (Mahomet, Ill.-Mahomet-Seymour) converted four free throws to seal the win.

Lambesis turned in an outstanding game, going for a team-high 28 points on 10-of-14 shooting. Noe added 17 points, followed by 11 from Leritz. Junior Doug Wallen (Champaign, Ill.-Champaign Central) grabbed a team-best six rebounds and sophomore Keondre Schumacher (Bloomington, Ill.-University HS) tallied a team-high three assists in the win. Senior Alex O'Neill (Peoria, Ill.-Peoria Notre Dame) came up big off the bench as IWU battled through foul trouble early on. The senior center scored six points, on 3-for-4 shooting, and grabbed a pair of rebounds.

Both teams shot 45.6 percent from the floor with the Titans making 35.3 percent of their three-pointers and the Vikings 26.9 percent from deep. IWU also went 16-of-17 from the free throw line while Augustana shot 11-of-18 on free throws. The Titans held slight edges in point in the paint, 34-32, and points off turnovers, 11-6.

Illinois Wesleyan will play in its first CCIW Championship game since 2015 tomorrow night, Feb. 29, at Gregory Arena. The Titans will take on either top-seeded North Central or fourth-seeded Elmhurst at 7 p.m. on the campus of NCC.