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2024 Men's Basketball Seniors
Kodiak Creative
55
North Central (IL) NCC 9-16,7-9 CCIW
67
Winner Ill. Wesleyan IWU 18-7,14-2 CCIW
North Central (IL) NCC
9-16,7-9 CCIW
55
Final
67
Ill. Wesleyan IWU
18-7,14-2 CCIW
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
North Central (IL) NCC 30 25 55
Ill. Wesleyan IWU 27 40 67

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

Men’s Hoops Secures Senior Day Win Over NCC

Titans conclude regular season 18-7 overall, 14-2 in league play

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The Illinois Wesleyan University men's basketball team closed out the regular season with a 67-55 win over North Central College on Senior Night inside the Shirk Center Saturday, Feb. 17. With the win, IWU concludes the regular season with an 18-7 overall record and a 14-2 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin mark. Meanwhile, NCC 9-16 overall and 7-9 in league play.

Senior Luke Yoder (Normal, Ill.-Central Catholic) led the Titans with 14 points, with junior Nick Roper (St. Louis, Mo.-MICDS) and Harrison Wilmsen (St. Louis, Mo.-Priory) added 12 and 12 points, respectively. Junior Hakim Williams (Round Lake, Ill.-Round Lake) contributed eight points and tied Wilmsen for the team-high with seven rebounds.

As a team, Illinois Wesleyan used a hot second half of shooting to finish the game 25-for-53 (47.2 percent) and 8-for-21 from three-point range, good for 38.1 percent. IWU went 5-of-10 from beyond the arc in the second half. The Titans converted 9-of-13 free throw attempts. Conversely, North Central was 19-for-56 from the floor, and just 5-for-26 (19.2 percent) from three. The Cardinals shot 12-for-16 from the charity stripe. 

North Central controlled much of the first half, as a 46.4 percent shooting clip in the first 20 minutes propelled the Cardinals to a 30-27 lead to halftime.

In the second half, assists from Williams and Roper led to a pair of buckets from WIlmsen to get the Titans within one, just two and a half minutes in.

The run continued on a swipe and score from Yoder, a jumper from Roper, and a three-ball from freshman Jackson Niego (Western Springs, Ill.-Lyons Township) to force North Central to call a timeout with 14:42 on the clock.

After a Roper pull-up, freshman Mason Funk (Normal, Ill.-University High) stole the ball and hit a eurostep to stretch the lead to a dozen, 42-30, with 11:38 to play.

The Titans maintained their lead as senior Grant Hardy (Grayslake, Ill.-Grayslake Central) threw down a thunderous dunk on an assist from Yoder. 

An and-one from junior Marko Anderson (Park Ridge, Ill.-Maine South) kept the lead at 12, before Yoder closed out the scoring with a three-pointer. 

As CCIW Regular Season Champions and the No. 1 seed in next week's conference tournament, IWU will enjoy some time off before returning to action Friday, Feb. 23. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. inside the Shirk Center and will follow the 5 p.m. semifinal featuring second-seeded Elmhurst University. The tournament will kickoff with the quarterfinals Tuesday, Feb. 20. More details on the tournament can be found here.

 
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