IWU men lose nail-biter to Principia at home

BY ANDY KRUTSINGER

Mt. Pleasant News

One of the most intense games of the early 2016-17 SLIAC slate took place Tuesday night at Ruble Arena between the Iowa Wesleyan men and Principia College.

The Tigers had two shots to tie the game in the last 13 seconds but Principia held on late for an 83-80 road win.

The Panthers started out on a 9-3 run before IWU could get their feet under them and get the offense going.

The Tigers went on a 13-0 run to lead 16-9 almost halfway through the first half.

Principia responded with a 17-3 run of their own to lead 26-19 with five minutes remaining in the half, but the Tiger used a trifecta of Brock Butler three-pointers and a handful of free throws to come back and lead, 36-30 at the half.

The Tigers went 6-14 from the three-point line in the first half, led by Butler?s three shots from down town. Steven Soukup had two three-pointers and Mitch Drey knocked down one.

?We knew they were going to play a lot of zone,? said IWU Coach Alex Huisman after the game. ?We did a decent job of moving the basketball (and) Brock made a few shots. Against the zone, you want to make a few shots to help them get out of it and take what?s available.?

Principia was able to take back the lead briefly in the second half, but the Tigers took it right back and stretched it to 66-56 with 8:38 remaining.

The Panthers stormed back, however, going on a 16-3 run to take a 72-69 lead with just over five minutes left.

Once again, the Tigers took back the lead, 76-75, on a three-point play by Steven with 2:28 left, but the Panthers scored the next five points to take an 80-76 advantage with 1:14 remaining.

IWU cut the lead to three points and had the ball with 32 seconds left. Steven was just off on a three-point attempt with 13 seconds remaining, but Principia?s TreVaughn Goodman missed two free throw shots to give the Tigers one last shot.

Butler had a decent look from the top of the key at the end of the game, but the ball hit the back of the rim as the buzzer sounded and the Panthers escaped with a road win.

After the game, Coach Huisman spoke about Principia?s comeback in the second half.

?We just didn?t play with the same energy defensively and gave them some easy ones,? he said. ?They started attacking the basket and got to the free throw line.?

Steven ended the game with 25 points on 6-14 shooting, 4-9 from the three-point line and 9-11 from the charity stripe to lead the team. Butler had 22 points, hitting four threes of his own.

Marquis Jones had 13 points, a team-leading eight rebounds and four assists in the loss. He was 7-7 from the free throw line.

C.J. Singletary had eight points. Mitch Drey had seven and Michael Soukup finished with five.

IWU fell to 4-4 overall with the loss and 2-1 in SLIAC play. They are currently tied with Principia in second place, one half game behind Webster, who is 2-0.

The Tigers will have their last conference game of the first semester on Dec. 10, when they hit the road to play Spalding University, at 2 p.m.