IW basketball tops Grand View

MT. PLEASANT — The Iowa Wesleyan men's’ basketball teams played their second home game of the season on Thursday night against the Grand View Vikings.

It was another great night of basketball for Iowa Wesleyan, as it picked up its second home win on back-to-back nights of actions.

The Tigers previously defeated William Woods on Wednesday and on Thursday they did it again with a 74-63 victory over Grand View.

Iowa Wesleyan found themselves down early, but by the combined scoring efforts of Henry Shannon and Joey Brown, they were able to climb back into it at 14-13.

After a four minute span, of which neither team could find a bucket, Grand View guard and former Mt. Pleasant basketball standout Brady Sartorius put the Vikings back on top.

It was Sartorius’ first time playing back in Mt. Pleasant.

“This is something I was looking forward to when I found out we were playing here,” Sartorius said. “It’s been five years since I’ve been back so just being able to play back in the town where I grew up was nice.”

It was a back and forth battle throughout the rest of the first half as four points was all that separated the two teams.

By the end of the first half action, the Tigers held onto a slim 34-32 lead.

Brown and Shannon led the Tigers with nine points each after the first half of play. For Gran View, Sartorius led all scorers with 10.

In the second half, the two teams continued their back and forth ways as the Vikings led 43-42 in the early stages of matchup.

Iowa Wesleyan found a spark in the next four minutes and they pieced together an 11-0 run to take a hold of the game 53-43.

“In that second half, our guys really started to see that we needed to lock in,” Iowa Wesleyan head coach Jordan Ashton said. “It’s a mentality that we don’t want to have. We want to have that mentality for 40 minutes.”

The Tigers would never trail the rest of the way out, but the Vikings were able to pull within 5 59-54, with 5:04 on the clock.

Another Iowa Wesleyan run, this time of six, gave the Tigers another extended lead, 65-54.

With efficient foul shooting and stellar defense, the Tigers were able to pull out their second straight win.

“As fun as it may look, we still have a long ways to go,” Shannon said. “Our first half wasn’t that great. We were able to pick it up in the second half, but we haven’t had a game where the whole team locked in. It’s going to be a wrap, it’s already so fun, but it’s going to be a whole other level.

The Tigers out shot the Vikings 40.6% (26-64) to 39% (23-59). The Vikings out shot the Tigers from behind the 3-point line 31.3% (5-16) to 21.7% (5-23). The Tigers out rebounded the Vikings 40 to 32. The Tigers had 36 points in the paint compared to 26 for the Vikings.

Sartorius finished with 16 points, two assists and two rebounds for Grand View.

With the win, the Tigers move to 3-1 on the season and 2-0 at home.

Shannon led the Tigers offensively in the win, finishing with 21 points. He also added 11 rebounds, two blocks and one steal.

Brown followed with 16 points, six rebounds and two assists. Allante Pickens and Gacoby Jones each added 10.

The Tigers will look to continue their win streak as they play host to the Culver-Stockton College Wildcats Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 7:30 p.m.