Iowa Wesleyan lights up Lincoln Christian

MT. PLEASANT - Going into Monday night's tilt with Lincoln Christian University, Iowa Wesleyan had three-straight blown halftime leads. On Monday, the Tigers exorcised those demons and more, dominating the second half en route to an 88-67 victory.

For the fifth-straight game, IW outscored their opponents in the first 20 minutes. Jake Neubauer and Jett Tjaden scored eight points each in the first half and the Tigers led 37-32 at the break.

Lincoln Christian cut the IW lead to one point after back-to-back jumpers in the second half, but it was all IW from there. The Tigers scored 12 points in a row to kick off a 26-4 run that busted the game open. In that run, the Tigers made six three-pointers. 'That's something we've talked about a lot the last couple weeks,” Tiger head coach Alex Huisman said. 'We've done a good job in the first half of executing the gameplan and building the lead at halftime. We just haven't been able to have the same energy and execution in the second half. We talked a lot about it, took a little bit of a different approach at halftime and the guys responded.”

Overeall the Tigers hit 19 three-pointers on the day. Five of them came from Jake Neubauer, who scored a team-high 19 points.

'They were helping off a lot,” Neubauer said. 'They didn't want anything to get to the hoop, so coach always tells us if you're open, (shoot it), and we've got guys who can knock down shots.”

Alberto Torres scored 15 points off the bench to become IW's second-leading scorer. Austin Banks had a double-doublt, going for 11 points and 10 assists, and Tjaden finished with 11.

Marvin Saintolien scored nine points in the win. Alex Dentlinger flirted with a double-double of his own, scoring nine points and bringing down 11 rebounds. Jarryd Fernandes scored six points and led the team with 16 rebounds. David Seberg finished with five points, Nico Sheck had two, and Martell Andrews scored one.

IW is now 4-6 overall. They'll scrimmage Quincy CUniversity on Thursday, Dec. 19, before returning to conference play where they'll put their 1-2 SLIAC record on the line at Blackburn on Saturday, Jan. 4.