ROCK ISLAND, Ill. - The Illinois Wesleyan men's basketball team lost an overtime decision 80-78 at #15-ranked Augustana on Tuesday (Jan. 31).

#24-ranked Illinois Wesleyan slipped to 15-5 overall with its second straight loss and is 6-3 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin. The Vikings won for the fifth straight time, all home games, improved to 16-4 and is also 6-3 in the league.
IWU and Augie are tied for third in conference play behind North Central (8-1) and Wheaton (7-2).

The Titans, who trailed 37-30 at halftime after trailing by 16 earlier in the first half, got within three of the Vikings at 47-44 with 13:24 to play in the game.

But Augustana went on an 18-5 run to claim a 69-53 edge with 6:39 to play.

The Titans had an amazing comeback left to get the game into position to win as IWU scored 17 unanswered points over a 4:33 stretch to take a 72-71 lead with 1:35 left, the first Titan lead since being on top 7-6 with 16:56 to go in the first half.

A 3-pointer by Augie's Bryant Voiles gave his team a 74-72 lead with 1:09 to go before junior Kevin Reed tied the game at 74-74 with 51 seconds to play in regulation. Augustana missed its final three shots to send the game into overtime.

Senior Jordan Zimmer led the Titans with 20 points while senior Eliud Gonzalez added 14 and sophomore Andrew Ziemnik scored 13.
Reed had 11 points and eight rebounds and sophomore Nick Anderson came off the bench to score 10.

Troy Rorer scored 16 to lead Augustana, including the eventual game-winner with 59 seconds left in the overtime session, while Voiles added 15.

Illinois Wesleyan, who shot a blistering .696 (16 of 23) in the second half, made 28 of 60 from the field (47 percent) in the game and connected on 5 of 15 3-point field goal attempts (33 percent) while making 17 of 24 free throws (71 percent). The Titans made just 2 of 10 shots from the field in the overtime.

Augustana shot 47 percent (29 of 62) from the field and made 11 of 23 (48 percent) from 3-point range. The Vikings made 11 of their 16 free throw attempts (69 percent).

Illinois Wesleyan returns home for a 7 p.m. contest on Saturday (Feb. 4) against North Park. The Vikings are 5-15 overall and 1-8 in the league after an 87-80 home court loss to Carthage on Tuesday.