Bloomington, Ill. – The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team fell, 65-56, to Illinois Wesleyan University in the second round of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Championships Saturday night at the Shirk Center. The Eagles finish the season 21-7 overall while the Titans improve to 23-5 overall. Illinois Wesleyan, ranked seventh on D3hoops.com, advances to the Sweet 16 next week.
UWL, ranked 14th on D3hoops.com, advanced to the NCAA III Second Round by defeating Heidelberg University (Ohio) 90-86 on Friday night. UWL is now 1-3 all-time in the NCAA Division III Championships after dropping first round games in 2006 and 2019.
Ethan Anderson had 17 points and nine rebounds.
The Eagles are a combined 67-26 (.720) while playing in two NCAA Division III Tournaments over the past four seasons. UWL's 21 wins this year ties the single-season school record for victories (1975-76, 2019-20).
Trailing 5-2, UWL went on an 9-0 run to take an 11-5 lead with 11:01 remaining in the first half on
Ethan Anderson's three-pointer.
Seth Anderson's jumper with 9:56 left gave the Eagles a 13-8 advantage, but the Titans went on a 8-2 run to take a 16-15 lead with 8:04 left on a Ryan Sroka three-point basket. Illinois Wesleyan took a 25-20 lead with 4:13 remaining on Luke Yoder's jumper.
UWL scored eight of the final 10 points to take a 28-27 lead at the halftime.
Ethan Anderson led the Eagles in the opening half with nine points.
Seth Anderson scored the first basket of the second half before Yoder hit a three-pointer for the Titans to tie the score at 30-30. A three-point play by
Austin Westra and back-to-back baskets from
Sean Suchomel and
Craig Steele gave the Eagles their largest lead of the second half at 37-32 with 15:12 remaining. Illinois Wesleyan went on a 11-4 run to take a 43-41 lead with 9:01 left on a pair of Cody Mitchell free throws.
Wyatt Cook had nine points and five rebounds.
After the Titans took a 52-47 lead on Yoder's jumper with 6:51 remaining, the Eagles got a pair of free throws from
Torin Hannah (6:00) and a layup from
Wyatt Cook (5:37) to cut the deficit to 52-51. Leading 55-53, Illinois Wesleyan hit back-to-back three-pointers from Mitchell (1:30) and Matthew Leritz (:48) to take a 61-55 lead.
Seth Anderson's free throw with :37 left cut the lead to to 61-56, but UWL would get no closer the rest of the game.
UWL shot 40.7% (24-of-59) from the field Saturday, including three-of-15 (20.0%) from three-point range, and 41.7% (five-of-12) at the line.
Ethan Anderson led the Eagles with a game-high 17 points and a team-high seven rebounds. Cook added nine points, five rebounds and three assists while
Seth Anderson finished with nine points and six rebounds. Suchomel also added a team-high five assists to go along with five points and six rebounds.
Seth Anderson had nine points and six rebounds.
Illinois Wesleyan shot 34.5% from the field, including 34.6% (nine-of-26) from three-point range, and 81.8% (18-of-22) at the line. Mitchell led the Titans with 15 points and nine rebounds while Yoder added 13 points, four assists and four rebounds. Cory Noe added 10 points, five rebounds and four assists.
