The No. 15 Titans of Illinois Wesleyan defeated the Baruch Bearcats, 75-71, in a non-conference game played on Thursday evening in the ARC Arena.

The Bearcats (7-3) started by taking an early 13-7 lead at 15:02, but the visiting Titans scored the next seven points during the next three minutes to take a 14-13 advantage. Olivia Lett scored a layup to give the Titans the 14-13 advantage and they would not relinquish that lead for the rest of the game.

The Titans (7-3), who are ranked 15th in the latest D3hoops.com poll, shot 46 percent (15-33) in the first half to take a 41-30 halftime advantage. Stacey Arlis led the visitors in the opening 20 minutes with 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting.

The Bearcats shot only 36 percent (11-31) in the first half and were led in the scoring column by Megan Bouwens and Folashade Akinde with eight points each.

During the second half, the visitors from the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) continued to build on their momentum and jumped out to their biggest lead of the evening of 19 points (59-40) with 10:58 remaining.

The Bearcats rallied late in the game by scoring 11 of the final 15 points, but time ran out to suffer the 75-71 non-conference home loss.

Overall, the Titans finished shooting 45 percent (31-69), and were led in the scoring column by Stacey Arlis with a team-high 22 points. Nikki Preston finished with 13 points, seven rebounds, six assists and two steals.

Monique Salmon led the way for the Bearcats with 17 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals. Regina Washington and Megan Bouwens (14 rebounds) scored 14 points each. Jessica Duleba (11 points, three steals) and Folashade Akinde (10 points, eight rebounds, three blocks) also reach double-figure scoring this evening.

The two teams were initially scheduled to play on Wednesday, December 29, but due to flight issues with the recent blizzard (sixth biggest snow storm in New York City history), the game was pushed back 24 hours to this evening.

Illinois Wesleyan also encountered significant traffic issues on their way to the game and endured close to four hours on their bus to travel from their hotel in Newark, New Jersey to New York City (eight miles). As a result, the start of the game was delayed by 75 minutes and the two teams eventually tipped off at 7:15 pm.  

The Baruch Bearcats will return to action on Tuesday, January 4, with a 6:00 pm non-conference road game at DeSales University in Center Valley, Pennsylvania.

The Titans will quickly finish their two-game road trip on Friday, December 31, with a 1:00 pm non-conference contest at #3-ranked Kean University in Union, New Jersey.