Iowa Wesleyan clamps Culver

MT. PLEASANT — The Iowa Wesleyan men’s basketball team hadn’t been shooting the ball well as of late, despite a pair of wins last week, but a resurgence of the outside shot, combined with another stellar defensive output led the Tigers to victory on Tuesday night.

The Tigers hit 11 3-pointers in a 74-54 route of Culver-Stockton, their third home win in seven days.

“It was fun,” said Joey Brown IV, who knocked down three outside shots on the day. “The past couple games, we've been in a slump. We know how good of a shooting team we are, but the thing is, our confidence wasn't there, and our chemistry is just getting going.”

Brown and Allante Pickens led the Tigers to a red-hot start. Iowa Wesleyan built as high as a 24 point lead in a one-sided first half that had the Culver bench rattled and the packed crowd at Ruble Arena on its feet.

Brown and Pickens scored 11 points apiece in the first half. The Tigers shot 5-for-12 from beyond the arc, and Iowa Wesleyan led 41-20 at the break.

“All our guys know we haven't hit as many of them the last couple of games,” said Iowa Wesleyan head coach Jordan Ashton. “We've been working on it. Guys have been in the gym a ton.”

Culver-Stockton fared better in the second half, but the Tigers’ lead was never in doubt.

Still, Coach Ashton says he saw a lot of ways his team could have been better.

“We still can do a lot better as a team,” Ashton said. “We're still doing a lot of little things that we've got to improve on, but it's finally good to jump on a team and keep things going in our direction.”

Defensively, it was the third-straight game that the Tigers have kept their opponents under 65. Iowa Wesleyan has done that in all four of its wins.

Pickens finished the night with 19 points and five assists to lead the Tigers. Brown scored 14 points and led the team with six rebounds. Victor Munoz finished with 10 points to give the Tigers three players in double digits.

James Evans II was a perfect 3-for-3 from downtown for a nine-point outing. Henry Shannon scored nine as well. Dylan Hurley finished with six. Eric Howard scored four, and Carer Locke finished with three.

Iowa Wesleyan is now 4-1 on the year. They’ll face East-West University on Friday and Columbia College on Saturday as part of the Culver-Stockton Classic.