Titans breeze past Bluejays

Posted on February 9, 2017

Austin Amann scored three points in IWU’s win over Elmiurst on Wednesday. (Photo by WJBC)

By WJBC Staff

BLOOMINGTON – Senior Andy Stempel had 21 points and senior Trevor Seibring had 16 points and a season-high 11 rebounds as the Illinois Wesleyan men’s basketball team soared past Elmhurst, 87-60, at the Shirk Center on Wednesday.

The Titans, who scored 87 points for the second straight game, improved to 15-6 overall and 7-5 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin while the Bluejays lost their fifth straight game and are now 6-16 this season and 2-11 in the league.

PODCAST: Listen to the postgame interview with coach Ron Rose on WJBC.

Illinois Wesleyan led by only three at 18-15 with 9:45 to play in the first half before going on a 14-5 run to claim a 32-20 lead with 4:33 before intermission, when IWU held a 43-29 lead.

In a game that featured 50 personal fouls and four technical fouls, the Titans corralled 40 rebounds to 37 for the Bluejays and forced 18 turnovers, scoring 23 points from them. IWU also had a 34-12 edge in points in the paint.

Stempel connected on 7-of-12 from the field and made all six of his free throw attempts. As a team, IWU shot 47.5 percent from the field (28 of 59) and shot a blistering 55.2 percent in the second half (16 of 29), winning the half by a 44-31 margin. Illinois Wesleyan equaled its season-best with 24 free throws and the 35 attempts is the second most in a game in 2016-17.

Seibring went 6-of-8 from the field and made 4-of-5 free throws in getting his second double-double of the season and first since Nov. 19, 2016 vs. Loras (15 points, 10 rebounds).

Junior Jaylen Beasley snared a career-high 10 rebounds, besting his previous high of nine (Loras, Nov. 19, 2016), and sophomore Colin Bonnett also scored in double figures for Illinois Wesleyan, hitting for 14 points while making a career-best three steals as the team had nine steals, a high for the season.

Elmhurst was led in scoring for the sixth straight game by Derek Dotlich with 19 points while Ryan Patton had 14 and Austin Brown came off the bench to score 10.

The Titans visit Carthage on Saturday.

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