The Titans blistered the nets at a better than 58 percent clip, knocking down eight 3 pointers and 25 of 32 free throws on their way to an 89 84 College Conference of Illinois Wisconsin men’s basketball victory over Augustana at the Carver Center.
Illinois Wesleyan rode the shooting strength of senior guards Pat Sodemann, Jordan Nelson and Dylan Overstreet to the win.
“They’ve got a great senior backcourt that makes great decisions and they made some tough shots, some tough plays,” Giovanine said. “When you have three guys who can shoot it like that, Cheap Jerseys free shipping it really spreads the court and we didn’t deal with it the way we wanted to do. ”
The loss ended a 10 game win streak for the Vikings and moved Illinois Wesleyan into a tie for first in the CCIW by matching Augustana’s 5 1 start in league play.
A jumper by Overstreet put the Titans (13 4, 5 1 CCIW) on top 65 64 with 8:54 to go and after Ben Ryan hit the first of two free throws to tie the game at the 8:29 mark, a 3 pointer from the top of the lane by Bryce Dolan moved Illinois Wesleyan ahead to stay with 7:42 to play.
“My message during that timeout was that Augie was not going to give this to us, that we were going to have to take it,” Titans coach Ron Rose said. “I thought as they came back, we got tentative and you can’t play that way against Augustana.”
Led by 19 points apiece from Hill and Ryan, the Vikings (15 2, 5 1) came no closer than two points the rest of the game despite 15 second half points from Griffin Pils.
Augustana was forced to play from behind much of the night after a run of 13 unanswered points by the Titans early in the first half.
Sodemann scored nine of his points as Illinois Wesleyan overcame a 14 10 deficit, a run Sodemann ended with a free throw to complete a three point play that left the Vikings in a 23 14 hole with 11:44 remaining in the opening half.
“We put ourselves in a tough spot pretty early,” Giovanine said. “We didn’t do a good job of following the scouting report or the game plan. We just didn’t look like ourselves. I don’t know if after 10 wins, we took too much for granted or we were a little lackadaisical in how we went about things. Hopefully we learn from it. Right now, that’s all we can do.”