IWU basketball teams rebound with home sweep

BY ANDY KRUTSINGER

Mt. Pleasant News

The Iowa Wesleyan basketball teams were back to their winning ways on Wednesday night in a SLIAC doubleheader against Webster University.

The Tigers used a flurry of first-half three-pointers in the women?s game to run away with a 61-45 victory, and then completed the sweep with an 83-76 comeback victory in the men?s game.

Freshman sharpshooter Darby Massner was feeling it once again in the first-half of the women?s game. She hit five three-pointers in the first half, and helped the Tigers turn a 15-12 deficit at the end of the first into a 29-21 halftime lead. Massner led all scorers after two quarters, with 15 points.

Dakota Flesner battled with a tough group of Webster posts throughout the first half, and was well on her way to a double-double at the break, with eight points and seven rebounds.

Rachel Williams opened the third quarter with two straight baskets to stretch the Tiger lead to 33-21. The Gorloks battled back, and cut the lead to seven points, but IWU worked the lead back up to 42-29 at the end of the third quarter.

The Gorloks were unable to get the IWU lead down to single digits in the fourth quarter. The score was at 49-39 with 4:33 left in the game, but the Tigers went on a 12-6 run to close the game out to seal the 16-point victory.

Flesner had a monsterous game inside, scoring 20 points and grabbing 16 rebounds in the win. Massner finished with 18 points on 6-8 from three-point land. Williams scored eight, and had three steals.

Aimee Iverson filled the stat sheet with six points, eight assists and six rebounds. Kaylee Moseley scored five points, and Kate Ray and Cairece Allen scored two apiece.

The men were in for a fight against a bigger Gorlok team. Webster used nine offensive rebounds in the first half to get out to a 38-30 lead. The Tigers had a balanced attack in the first 20 minutes, but Chris Fowler led IWU in scoring at the break, with eight points.

The second half, as it has all season, belonged to the IWU men. The Tigers worked their way back into the game with jump shots, and outscored the Gorloks 12-3 to start the second half.

Steven Archibald gave the Tigers a 42-41 lead on a jump shot with 16:35 left in the game. Webster scored the next four points, but Archibald responded with a three-pointer. Then, after another Gorlok basket, Brock Butler gave the Tigers the lead for the final time on a three-pointer of his own.

The Gorloks turned up the pressure in towards the end of the game, throwing down two dunks in the second half, and three total in the game. IWU, however, hit nine threes in the second half, and worked the lead to 19 points, at 75-56, with 4:34 remaining.

Webster was able to get the IWU lead back down to single digits in the final minute of the game, but the clock ran out on the Gorloks, and IWU was able to celebrate another home sweep.

Mitchell Drey led the Tigers with 16 points, all coming in the second half. He shot 6-8 from the field and 3-3 from behind the three-point line. Butler and Elijah Johnson finished with 12 apiece, and Fowler had 10.

Archibald and Singletary scored nine points apiece in the win. Marquis Jones had eight. Austin Walker scored three, and Michael Neff finished with two.

Both the men (11-5, 7-2) and women (13-3, 8-1) currently sit atop the SLIAC standings. The women were helped by a Greenville loss on Wednesday night that allowed the Tigers to re-take sole possession of the conference lead.

The Tigers will travel to MacMurray College on Saturday for a double-header, starting at 1 p.m. IWU swept the Highlanders at home, on Dec. 2.