Iowa Wesleyan basketball teams go 3-1 in weekend games

The now 25th-ranked Iowa Wesleyan men’s basketball team has now rattled off a ridiculous 18 wins in a row after two more wins in Missouri over the weekend.

The Tiger men knocked off Baptist Bible College 79-67 on Friday night in Springfield. On Saturday in Point Lookout, they rolled past College of the Ozarks 70-42. The women ran past Baptist Bible College 84-52 before taking a 71-66 loss at the Ozarks.

Iowa Wesleyan jumped out to an early lead against Baptist Bible and held a 38-27 halftime advantage. Baptist Bible cut the lead down to six during the second half, but that’s as close as the Tigers would get to losing the lead.

Victor Munoz scored 17 points and co-led the team with seven rebounds in the win. Carver Locke had 15 points. Gacoby Jones finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and five assists.

James Evans II and Dylan Hurley each scored eight points for the Tigers. Joey Brown IV had seven points and seven rebounds. Henry Shannon scored seven points.

College of the Ozarks was within five at halftime of the Tigers, who held a 29-24 lead at the break, but it was all Iowa Wesleyan in the second half.

Iowa Wesleyan had four double-digit scorers against Ozarks. Brown and Munoz scored 11 each. Shannon and Jones put up 10 each. Odunsi finished with eight points and eight rebounds, and Francis Okwuosah had eight points of his own.

The Tiger women were on fire on Friday night at Baptist Bible College. Iowa Wesleyan led 45-31 at halftime, and continued dominating into the second half.

Breanna Wendland and Isabell West put up 23 points apiece to lead the Tigers. Kyla Moore scored 16. Brielle Baker had 12. Maci Kuchta finished with eight, and Megan Teal added two.

Iowa Wesleyan held a 34-26 halftime lead over College of the Ozarks, but things began to go wrong in the second half. Ozarks put up 29 points in the third quarter to flip the script to a 55-49 Ozarks lead after three, and Iowa Wesleyan found itself down by as much as 11.

The Tigers had the lead down to two points with two minutes left when Baker knocked down a 3-pointer to make it 66-64, but Iowa Wesleyan could never tie the game back up, as Ozarks hit its free throws down the stretch.

West finished Saturday’s game with 19 points and 14 rebounds. Wendland had 12. Baker scored 11, and Moore had 10 to give the team four double-digit scorers. Faith Watkins scored seven points. Teal had six, and Kuchta added one.

The Tiger men are now 18-1 overall. The women are 12-6. Both teams will put their 2-0 Continental Athletic Conference records on the line this Friday against Haskell Indian Nations University. Those games will be held at Ruble Arena with the women’s game tipping off at 5:30 p.m.