BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The No. 3 Illinois Wesleyan University men's basketball team welcomes Augustana College to the Shirk Center this Saturday, Jan. 15. for a 4 p.m. College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin game. The game will serve as a second leg of a doubleheader with the IWU women's basketball team and will feature a recognition of former Titan standout Kendall Sosa 10 minutes prior to tipoff.
    Illinois Wesleyan charges into the contest with a 10-2 overall record and sits tied for first in the CCIW at 3-1. The Titans most recently topped Millikin University, 78-67, Jan. 12. Augie, who enters Saturday 8-6 on the year and 3-2 in the conference, is coming off its biggest win of the season - a 79-73 triump at No. 10 Wheaton College, Jan. 12.
A live stream of the game will be available, along with live stats. Links on how to follow along can be found on the men's basketball schedule page of IWUsports.com.

MAKE IT 11 IN-A-ROW: IWU pulled off a 78-67 win over Millikin, Jan. 12, despite being without two starters, a pair of key reserves, and head coach Ron Rose. Assistant coach Andy Etheridge guided the Titans to the victory, the Green and White's 11th straight over the Big Blue.

NEXT GUY UP: The Titans turned to Lucas Heflen, Nick Roper, and Grant Taueg among others to help IWU down Millikin, Jan. 12, as Illinois Wesleyan played with a short-handed squad. Heflen scored a career-high 15 points, while Roper added a career-best nine points off the bench on 4-for-5 shooting. Taueg's bucket, the first of his IWU career, came at a crucial point to put the Green and White up 11, 56-45, with 10:22 left to play.

AGAINST AUGIE ALL-TIME: Illinois Wesleyan and Augustana will square off on the hardwood for the 174th time Saturday, in a series that dates back to the 1914-15 season. IWU leads the all-time tally, 96-77, but Augie has won 11 of the last 15 meetings.
Last season's meetings were both canceled, so Saturday will be the first between the two since the 2020 CCIW Tournament. The Titans overcame a three-point halftime deficit to advance to the CCIW Tournament Championship with a 74-70 win. Peter Lambesis led the way with a career-high 28 points on 10-of-14 shooting. Cory Noe and Matthew Leritz added 17 and 11 points, respectively.

DON'T HOLD IT AGAINST HIM: Illinois Wesleyan Athletic Director Mike Wagner, a 1992 Augie graduate, played football for the Vikings for four seasons. A Honorable Mention All-American by Dan Hansen's Football Gazette, Wagner was an All-CCIW linebacker for the Vikings. He led Augie to three NCAA Division III Playoff appearances during his playing career.

SCHEDULE SHUFFLING: Illinois Wesleyan's game against Elmhurst, originally scheduled for Jan. 5, was postponed to Monday, Jan. 17 at 2 p.m. IWU will also now play Carthage Monday, Jan. 24, at 7 p.m. in Kenosha, Wis. The CCIW updated its COVID scheduling guidelines to require teams to have a minimum of eight medically-cleared student-athletes to play.
Additionally, IWU has added a game against Concordia Chicago for Saturday, Jan. 29. The game, which replaces the Titans' previously scheduled game at Mount St. Vincent, will tip at 7 p.m.

RANKINGS ON REPEAT: Illinois Wesleyan is one of 20 programs that have appeared in at least 100 D3Hoops.com Top-25 rankings. In fact, the Titans 177 appearances in the weekly poll are ninth-most all-time. The Titans are currently ranked No. 3 in the poll.

ON THE HORIZON: Illinois Wesleyan remains at home for a Monday matinee against Elmhurst University, Jan. 17. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m.

TOPPING THE CHARTS: Senior Matthew Leritz pulled down a whopping 25 rebounds in IWU's 73-59 win over top-ranked Yeshiva, Dec. 30. Leritz, who single handily out-rebounded the Maccabees, broke the Illinois Wesleyan single-game rebounding record. Don Davidson set the record with 24 Dec. 3, 1966 against MacMurray, which was later tied by Jack Sikma against Bradley Dec. 30, 1976.
Additionally, Leritz's 25 rebounds are tied for the second-most in Division III this season. He sits tied with Medgar Evans' Mousa Sinera, three off the season-high of 28 by Buffalo State's Philbert Weekes.

LAMBESIS LAUDED BY D3HOOPS: Peter Lambesis became the third Titan to garner a spot on D3hoops.com's Team of the Week, Jan. 4. He joins co-captains Cory Noe (week one) and Matthew Leritz (week two), and is also the eighth Titan to receive the recognition all-time.
Lambesis averaged 15.0 points per game on 57.1 percent shooting over the three-game span. He added 4.0 assists, 3.0 rebounds, and 1.7 steals per game. Defensively, he held two of Division III's top scorers well below their season averages.

STREAK SNAPPERS: Illinois Wesleyan handed Yeshiva its first loss in 783 days, Dec. 30, as the Titans took down Division III's top-ranked team, 73-59. The win snapped Yeshiva's historic win streak at 50 and marked the Maccabees' first home loss since Feb. 18, 2019 (L, 98-96 vs. Purchase).

HOOPDIRT.COM HONORS ROSE: Following a dominating win over the D3hoops.com No. 1 team, Illinois Wesleyan Head Men's Basketball Coach Ron Rose was named the HoopDirt.com Division III Coach of the Week Monday, Jan. 3.
Rose was honored alongside Baylor's Scott Drew (Division I), Elizabeth City State's Shawn Walker (Division II), College of Idaho's Colby Blaine (NAIA), and Polk State's Brandon Giles (JUCO). Rose guided his fourth-ranked squad to a dominating 73-59 win over No. 1 Yeshiva, Dec. 30.

LONG DISTANCE LOVE, AND THE LACK THEREOF: The top-five matchup between IWU and YU featured two of the best beyond the arc that Division III has to offer. Yeshiva entered the game ranked fifth in Division III in three-point field goal percentage (41.6) and third in three-pointers made (139). Meanwhile, Illinois Wesleyan came in with the 21st-best three-point field goal percentage defense (26.5 percent).
It was the Titan defense that prevailed in the battle from the long line as the Green and White held the Maccabees to five triples on 20 attempts (25 percent). YU's five three-pointers were the second-fewest by the team this season, while its 25.0 percent clip was Yeshiva's lowest since Dec. 6, 2018 (5-for-20 at Purchase).
On the flip side, IWU drained 10 three-pointers on 23 attempts (43.5), including 9-of-14 in the opening half. Luke Yoder hit three treys, Cody Mitchell and Ryan Sroka added two apiece, and Matthew Leritz, Peter Lambesis, and Cory Noe connected on one each.

LAM-BEAST-IS: Illinois Wesleyan's Peter Lambesis has been tasked with guarding the top offensive player on the opposing team throughout the season. Most recently, Lambesis held Division III's leading scorer, Ryan Turrell nearly eight points below his average.