In the first conference battle of the season for Indiana Wesleyan University, the Wildcats took on undefeated Marian University.
In a game IWU should have been pumped up for, there wasn’t a whole lot of fire. Last season, Marian handed the Wildcats their first loss of the season and Tuesday night was the same story.
The first half started off well for Indiana Wesleyan, as they went on a 10-0 run after Marian scored the first bucket of the game. IWU started off up 13-4 in just the first three minutes of the ball game, and it looked like they were in total control. Marian was turning the ball over too much, and Lane Mahurin (jr) scored ten straight points to give IWU a lead of 23-12 with 10:50 remaining in the first half.
With about six minutes remaining in the half, the momentum started to shift in Marian’s favor. Marian had been hanging around all game, not letting the game get completely out of hand, and they were soon able to get themselves right back in the game. After switching their defense up to a zone, Indiana Wesleyan just couldn’t get many open shots, and really struggled to make the ones they did get. With the Wildcats no longer able to get anything going on offense, Marian soon took the lead with a minute left in the half and went into the half up by three.
The struggle for IWU continued through the second half. The offense wasn’t flowing, thanks in part to Marian’s zone defense. Jacob Johnson (so) tied the game up at 41, but the Knights went on a 10-0 run over the next few minutes, giving them their first double-digit lead of the game — and that’s where their lead started to become too much for the Wildcats.
Most of the second half involved IWU trying to bring the lead down, but they couldn’t get it down to seven. Marian eventually led by a game-high 15 points with 56 seconds left in the game.
Mahurin and Jonny Marlin (sr) both led the team with 17 points apiece, and Mahurin added an additional nine rebounds, while Marlin had seven rebounds. Josh Mawhorr (sr) chipped in with 14 points, and Bob Peters (jr) had 10.
The biggest problem for the Wildcats was free throw shooting, where they shot 56.5 percent. Coach Greg Tonagel was not happy about it.
“It was awful,” was the only comment Tonagel had to offer on the poor shooting from the charity stripe.
Tonagel was also very upset about the way his team played overall.
“I don’t think there was any facet of this game that we outplayed them in,” said Tonagel. “They just outplayed us tonight and there’s no excuse for that. We were bad on both ends of the ball, and they’re a pretty good team. We can’t do that.”
Indiana Wesleyan’s next game is at Spring Arbor on Tuesday, Dec. 1. They will look to get back on track after losing their first game of the season.