BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- The Illinois Wesleyan men's basketball team gave head coach Ron Rose his 200th career win in an 84-75 defeat of Wheaton College at the Shirk Center on Saturday, Jan. 7.
The Titans improved to 11-3 overall and 3-2 in College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin play while the Thunder is 6-7 overall and 2-2 in conference action.
In his 11th season, Rose now has an overall record of 200-98 with a CCIW ledger of 92-53. His first win was against Clarke College (86-59) on Nov. 17, 2006, and his 100th victory was a 69-64 decision at Carthage on Feb. 11, 2012. Rose is third in all-time wins at IWU, behind Dennie Bridges (667-319, 1965-01) and Jack Horenberger (264-212, 1945-65).
Five IWU players scored in double figures, led by the 17 points each from senior Andy Stempel and junior Brady Rose. Sophomore Nick Coleman came off the bench to score 15 along with sophomore Colin Bonnett and senior Trevor Seibring scored 10.
Senior Alec Bausch had a game-high 10 rebounds as IWU held a 36-33 rebound edge in the game.
Illinois Wesleyan took a 9-8 lead with 16:00 left in the first half and led the rest of the game with the largest edge of 14 points coming at the 6:07 mark of the first half. Wheaton never got closer than five points (44-39, :37 before halftime).
The Thunder got 39 points from Aston Francis with 28 of those coming in the first half. The 39 points is the second most by an opponent and the fourth most by any player at the Shirk Center with the record being 44 by Wheaton's Kent Raymond on Feb. 9, 2007.
Ricky Samuelson added 15 points and Luke Peters had 11 for Wheaton.
Illinois Wesleyan capitalized by scoring 25 points off 13 Wheaton turnovers and the IWU bench contributed 20 points to only four from Thunder non-starters.
IWU has now won nine of the last 10 meetings with the Thunder and 32 of 39 in Bloomington since 1979.
What's Next?
Illinois Wesleyan plays at Augustana on Wednesday, Jan. 11, in Rock Island ... The Vikings, who were idle on Saturday, are 10-3 overall and 3-1 in the CCIW.