BOXSCORE

Kenosha, Wis. – The second-seeded Wheaton College men's basketball team lost a 68-59 decision to third-seeded Illinois Wesleyan on Friday night in the Semifinals of the CCIW Men's Basketball Tournament, hosted by Carthage College. Wheaton is now 18-8 on the season, while Illinois Wesleyan improves to 20-6.

The Titans held a 32-29 lead at halftime of tonight's contest. Wheaton scored the first six points of the second half to take a 35-32 lead with 17:00 left in the game. Wheaton's largest lead of the second half was an eight-point advantage at 47-39 with 11:00 left in the game. The Titans regained the lead thanks to a 14-3 scoring run that gave IWU a 54-50 lead with 6:45 left in regulation. A Ben Panner layup tied the game at 57-57 with 3:30 remaining in the game. The Titans out-scored the Thunder 11-2 over the final three minutes of regulation to secure the victory and send IWU to tomorrow's championship game.

Senior Jake Carwell shot 6-of-10 from the field to score 13 points. The forward also grabbed seven rebounds, with three assists. Guards Ben Panner and Andrew Jahns each scored 10 points. John Shackelford and David Eseke each scored nine points and Tim McCrary# scored eight points, with six assists and five rebounds.

John Koschnitzky scored 15 points, with 6-for-8 from the field for the Titans. Doug Sexauer added 14 points and Sean Johnson scored 12 points.

Wheaton shot 44.2% (23-52) from the field, with 40% (8-20) from the three-point range and 83.3% (5-6) at the free throw line. The Titans recorded a 53.7% (22-41) field goal percentage, with 46.2% (6-13) from three-point range and 78.3% (18-23) at the free throw line. Illinois Wesleyan held a 26-24 edge in rebounding, while Wheaton had a 5-2 advantage on the offensive glass.

Illinois Wesleyan advances to Saturday's CCIW Tournament Championship Game for the right to earn the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Wheaton, ranked third in the most recent NCAA-III Midwest Region rankings will now wait to see if it has earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament. The NCAA will announce the participants and pairings in the Division III Tournament on Monday March 1 via streaming video at 9 AM (CST) on www.ncaa.com at this LINK. Tournament brackets will be posted on ncaa.com at 9:30 AM on Monday morning.

Panner moved into 17th-place on Wheaton's all-time scoring list tonight with 1,463 career points. The four-year starter also is now seventh on the school's career three-pointers list with 173 and ninth all-time in assists with 275.