Tiger men earn conference home win

Five Tigers reached double digits and Iowa Wesleyan knocked down 10 three-pointers in an 87-70 win over Principia on Tuesday night. The win completed the two-game sweep of the Panthers this season.

Principia started the game hot and jumped out to a 7-2 lead early in the first half, but the Tigers responded with five straight to tie the game. The Panthers scored four more points to take an 11- advantage, but Jake Neubauer scored the next five points by himself and IW never relinquished the lead.

'Shoot around today and practice the last couple of days have been good,” said IW head coach Alex Huisman. 'They were ready to go today. They were pretty locked in and focused. They executed the game plan from the start, and every time Principia made a big play or tried to make a run, we responded.”

The Tigers spread the ball around and buried Principia with their depth in the first half. Austin Banks led the way with 10 points, and the Tigers held a 42-30 lead at the break.

IW hit six three-pointers in the second half, four of them by Kaleb Cresswell. The Tigers led by as much as 24 points before Principia made a minor run in the final few minutes.

Austin Rebel finished the night with a double-double, scoring 17 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Neubauer co-led the team in scoring with 17 points of his own.

Cresswell had 14 points on the night. Alberto Torres scored 12. Banks finished with 10 points and six assists.

Jarryd Fernandes scored six points in the win. Alex Dentlinger had five. Jett Tjaden scored three. Brian Patterson had two, and Joshua Cole finished with one.

Principia's Micah Paulson came into the game as the conference's leading scorer with over 25 points per game. He had a cold shooting night, going 9-22 from the field, and only had eight points at halftime before finally finding his grove late to finish with 24.

'How they go is determined by how well he's playing,” Coach Huisman said after the game. 'The game plan early was to make every shot as difficult as possible. Don't give him easy ones. You've got to give Alberto a lot of credit, using his length, being active and working his butt off to make those difficult shots.”

IW moved to 6-14 overall and 4-9 in conference play with the win. They'll look to grab another SLIAC victory when they take on Blackburn on the road, on Saturday, Feb. 2.