Box Score ELMHURST, Ill. - The Elmhurst men's basketball team rallied from a 24-point deficit, but came up short falling 72-68 to Westminster College (Mo.).

Elmhurst was left still searching for its first win with the loss (0-5) while Westminster improved to 6-1 with the victory.

Poor shooting from Elmhurst combined with red-hot three-point shooting from Westminster resulted in the Bluejays falling behind 44-26 at the half. Westminster connected on 8-of-14 three-point attempts from downtown (57.1 percent) while the Bluejays shot only 30.3 percent (10-of-33) from the floor, including 0-9 from downtown.

Westminster pushed its lead up to 24 points in the opening four minutes of the second half, before the Bluejays slowly started to chip away. A 17-5 run by Elmhurst over the next eight minutes brought Westminster's lead down to 12 points. Westminster pushed its lead back up to 16 points (68-52) with 6:22 left on the clock. Elmhurst ripped off the next nine points to pull to within seven points after Kyle Wuest knocked down a jumper.

Westminster opened up a nine-point advantage with 2:12 left, but the Bluejays answered back with five straight points to close to within four points. After a a free throw from Westminster's Joe James with 33 seconds left on the clock, Wuest hit another bucket to pull Elmhurst to within three points. Westminster missed a pair of free throws with 18 seconds left allowing the Bluejays a chance to tie the game, but a missed three-pointer with time running out, ended Elmhurst's rally.

The Bluejays finished the game shooting 44.3 percent (27-of-61) from the floor after shooting 60.7 percent (17-of-28) in the second half. The Bluejays missed their first 13 three-pointers before finishing the game shooting 2-of-17 from beyond the arc (11.8 percent). Westminster ended the contest shooting 47.1 percent (24-of-51) from the floor, including 50.0 percent (10-of-20) from long distance.

Nick Sanford led Elmhurst with 14 points and six rebounds. Alex Morgunov chipped in 13 points while Taylor Baxter finished with11 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Wuest came off the bench to finish with nine points and seven rebounds.

The Bluejays' struggled to solve Westminster's Skylar Tolson. Tolson finished the contest with a game-high 24 points while shooting 7-of-9 from three-point range. Verdis Lee chipped in with 18 points and five assists while Taylor Allen scored 13.

Elmhurst hosts Wesbter University on Saturday (December 8).