Bloomington, Ill., December 7, 2013 — The No. 8 ranked Washington University in St. Louis men's basketball team shot a season-low 38.3 percent from the field and was outrebounded for the first time this season as the Bears suffered a 98-73 loss at No. 5 Illinois Wesleyan University Saturday night at the Shirk Center in Bloomington, Ill.
Senior guard Tim Cooney poured in a career-high 27 points on 9-of-17 from the field and 7-of-7 from the free-throw line. Senior guard Alan Aboona (10 points, six assists) and junior forward Nick Burt (10 points) also scored in double figures for Washington University in the loss.
Washington U. trailed for most of the first half, as a jumper by Burt at the 17:07 mark gave the Bears their largest lead of the game at 7-5. Tied at 9-9, Illinois Wesleyan went on an 11-0 run to force a timeout by Washington U. head coach Mark Edwards.
Cooney nailed a three-pointer after the timeout to get the lead down to single digits (20-11), and then a triple by junior David Fatoki got the deficit down to seven at 25-18. The Bears would get the down to six (45-39) with a minute to play on a driving lay-up by Cooney, but Michael Mayberger drilled two free-throws to make it 47-39 at half.
IWU shot 55.6 percent (15-27) in the opening half, but Washington U. stayed in the game by making 14-of-19 free-throws. Cooney had 21 points in the first half on 6-of-10 shooting from the field and 7-of-7 from foul line.
Aboona cut the lead to five (47-42) with a three-pointer on the Bears' first possession of the second half, but a 10-0 run by IWU in a span of 2:12 made it 69-51 with 11:19 remaining. The Bears got the lead down to 14 on a pair of free-throws by Aboona with 9:38 remaining, but Illinois Wesleyan put the game out of reach with a 15-3 run.
Dylan Overstreet (15 points), Pat Sodemann (14), Mayberger (13), Nick Anderson (12) and Eric Dortch (10) all scored in double figures for Illinois Wesleyan, who improved to 5-1 with the win. The Titans shot 54.4 percent (31-57) from the field, including 44 percent from three-point range (11-25), and 80.6 percent (25-31) from the free-throw line.
Washington U. (5-2) returns home to host Coe College Sunday, Dec. 15, at 3 p.m.
Bear Notebook: Illinois Wesleyan leads the all-time series with Washington U. 20-15, and the teams split a pair of meetings a year ago … The 98 points allowed by Washington U. are the most since Feb. 12, 2006 – a 102-100 overtime victory by the Bears at home vs. Emory … The Bears have been outrebounded five times in the last two years, including the last three against IWU … Illinois Wesleyan had a 43-17 advantage in bench points.