Iowa Wesleyan women slide by Red Devils

BY ANDY KRUTSINGER

Mt. Pleasant News

EUREKA ? The Iowa Wesleyan women kept their SLIAC championship hopes alive on Wednesday night with a road win at Eureka College.

The Tigers came back from a halftime deficit to escape Eureka with a 59-53 road win.

IWU got out to a fast start in the first quarter. The Tigers outscored the Red Devils 17-7 in the early minutes of the game, led by seven points from Rachel Williams.

Eureka, however, hit right back with a 14-0 run to end the quarter and the Red Devils led 21-17 after the first period.

The Tigers cut the Eureka lead to one point on three different occasions in the second quarter, but they couldn?t string enough shots together to take a lead. At the break, Eureka led, 32-29.

The Red Devils stretched their lead to 34-29 early in the third quarter but a three-point play by Dakota Flesner and a jump shot by Williams helped the Tigers tie the game at 34-34.

IWU went onto tie the game three more times throughout the third quarter but didn?t take their first second-half lead until the end of the period. Kaylee Moseley tied the game at 44-44 with a three-pointer with 33 second left and then knocked down another three with seven seconds left to give IWU the 47-44 lead.

Eureka cut the lead to 47-46 early in the fourth quarter but Moseley splashed another shot from three-point land with 6:14 remaining to stretch the lead to 50-46.

After a three minute scoreless streak by both teams, Williams hit another three-pointer and sank a free throw to work the IWU lead to 54-46 with 3:11 left. The Red Devil offense couldn?t get the lead back and the Tigers secured the conference win.

Williams finished the game with 17 points and four steals to lead the Tigers. Flesner and Moseley had 13 points apiece. Flesner also led the team with 10 rebounds.

Aimee Iverson scored seven points and dished out five assists in the win. Darby Massner had six points. Kate Ray had two and Cairece Allen scored one.

IWU moved to 16-6 overall with the win and 11-4 in conference play. The Tigers are still tied with Greenville for second place and are two games behind Westminster with three games to go.

The Tigers will return home for their next contest on Saturday, Feb. 13, against Blackburn College. IWU defeated the Beavers, 76-50, in a road game earlier this season.