BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The Elmhurst men's basketball team closed out the 2015-16 regular season by struggling to a 77-67 loss at Illinois Wesleyan University.
Illinois Wesleyan (13-12, 7-7 CCIW)) rained downed a dozen three-pointers in the win and scored 24 points off of 18 Elmhurst turnovers in the win. Coupled with a loss by North Park, the Titans secured the fourth and final spot in the CCIW tournament with the victory.
Elmhurst (20-5, 10-4 CCIW), ranked 13th in the latest D3hoops.com poll, struggled right from the start. Illinois Wesleyan scored the game's first five points and built a quick 10-2 cushion, leading wire-to-wire in the win. IWU pushed its lead into double figures just seven minutes into the contest after Bryce Dolan connected a three-pointer. The Titans led by as many as 17 points in the opening half and carried a 34-15 lead into the locker room at the half.
Elmhurst closed the deficit down to 10 points just 3:30 into the second half, but the Titans responded with a 12-2 run over the next three minutes to open up a commanding 20-point edge. Trailing by 22 with just under 10 minutes remaining, Elmhurst made one last run, rattling off eight straight points to pull to within 14, but the Titans quickly pushed the lead back 22 with a 10-2 run. The Bluejays closed the final 4:30 on a 15-3 run to cut the final deficit to 10 points.
The Bluejays shot 44.4 percent (24-of-54) from the floor, but struggled in the opening half, hitting just 7-of-28 shots (25.0 percent) in the game's first 20 minutes. The Bluejays hit just 5-of-15 (33.3 percent) from beyond the arc. Elmhurst won the battle on the glass, finishing with a 39-30 edge in rebounding.
Bryant Ackerman joined the 1,000-point club in the loss, finishing with eight points to total 1,006 for his career.
Pat Coleman and
Erik Crittenden scored 14 points apiece for the Bluejays in the loss while
Kenny Payonk came off the bench to score.
The Titans finished the contest shooting 45.8 percent (27-of-59) from the floor, but knocked down 12-of-30 three-point attempts (40.0 percent) in the win. Five players reached double figures to pace the Titans in the win. Dolan scored a game-high 15 points, knocking down five shots from beyond the arc. Trevor Seibring and Andy Stempel scored 12 points apiece while Colin Bonnett and Joel Pennington totaled 10 points apiece.
Elmhurst will be the three seed in next weekend's CCIW Tournament. The Bluejays will face second-seeded North Central College on Friday, February 26, at Augustana College.
