BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The 12th-ranked Illinois Wesleyan University men's basketball team saw its win streak snapped at nine Wednesday, Jan. 28, as the Titans fell to Carthage College, 80-65, inside the Shirk Center. IWU (15-4, 7-3) and CC (13-6, 7-3) are now tied atop the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin standings with Wheaton College.

Senior Karlo Colak (Glencoe, Ill.-New Trier) was the Green and White's leading scorer with 21 points on 7-of-15 shooting. Sophomore Noah Cleveland (Normal, Ill.-Normal Community) and junior Casen Lawrence (St. Louis, Mo.-Westminster Christian) joined him in double figures with 14 and 11 points, respectively. Junior Mason Funk (Normal, Ill.-University High) pulled in a team-best 11 rebounds and posted a career-high six blocks.

Illinois Wesleyan converted 37.9 percent of its shot attempts (25-of-66), and went just 5-for-24 from beyond the arc. IWU made 10-of-16 free throw tries, while Carthage went 24-for-31 at the charity stripe. The Firebirds hauled in a 48-32 lead in rebounding and also finished with leads in second-chance scoring (15-4) and bench scoring (13-9). The Titans corralled advantages points in the paint (36-22), fastbreak scoring (8-7), and points off turnovers (12-4).

Lawrence gave the Titans their first lead of the day, 7-6, with a three-pointer and sophomore Connor Williams (Palos Park, Ill.-Stags) later broke a tie with a free throw to give IWU a 16-15 edge.

Carthage responded with a 12-point run to charge ahead, 27-16, with a Ryan Johnson three-ball forcing a Titan timeout as the clock ticked under seven minutes. Out of the reset, Illinois Wesleyan immediately fed the ball inside to Cleveland for a tough bucket.

Two free throws from Colak kept the tide in favor of the home team with 6:16 to go in the period. Lawrence drained a deep three-pointer to pull Illinois Wesleyan within two, 27-25, and force a Carthage timeout.

The pause did little to slow the Titans' sharpshooter, as Lawrence connected on another triple to move the Green and White ahead, 28-27. The one-point edge proved to be IWU's final lead of the day, as Carthage went on an 11-2 run to seize control at the break, 38-32.

The Firebirds upped their lead to as many as 17 in the second half to snap Illinois Wesleyan's nine-game win streak with an 80-65 setback.

IWU is back in action at home Saturday, Jan. 31, for its annual PinkZone game. The Titans will take on North Central College in a 4:15 p.m. start that will come on the back end of Illinois Wesleyan women's basketball's game against the Cardinals.