In the first game of the Crossroads League Men’s Conference Tournament, the Indiana Wesleyan University Wildcats pulled out a close one against the Spring Arbor University Cougars, winning 71-64.
The story of the first half was the Wildcats defense. They only allowed 25 points for the entire half, and it seemed like the Wildcats were in control, even though the lead never got into double digits.
IWU struggled with their shot in the first half of play, shooting just 41.4 percent from the field. They were able to nail six threes, however, three of which were from DJ Bettinger (sr). Bob Peters (so) capped off the first half with a last-second three to give the Wildcats a 34-25 advantage at the half.
The second half of the game was a complete disaster for IWU on the defensive end, though.
DJ Bettinger (sr) sunk 6 three-pointers. Photo by Amanda Couser.
IWU gave up 39 points in the second half, compared to just 25 in the first, and Coach Greg Tonagel said he wasn’t pleased.
“Our defense has been up and down, and it was down today. I didn’t like the way we guarded. We didn’t guard individually and we didn’t guard collectively,” Tonagel said. “You got to be able to do both, and we gave up a lot of layups today.”
The Wildcats seemed to be in control of the game to start out the half, bringing their lead to as high as 13, but the Cougars started to chip away at the lead.
From about 15 minutes left in the game to about five minutes left, Spring Arbor went on a 25-11 run and eventually tied the game at 51 with just under eight minutes to play. Bettinger promptly hit his fifth three of the game, however, to give the Wildcats their lead back.
The Wildcats once-commanding lead was no more as the Cougars took their first lead of the game at 59-58 and then swiftly vanished as Lane Mahurin (so) hit a pair of free throws with about six minutes remaining.
Peters became much more aggressive, driving to the basket and drawing more fouls, leading to him hitting some big free throws.
Bettinger hit his game-leading sixth three of the game to push the lead to six, but Spring Arbor answered right back with a three of their own. Peters then went down the court, and drew a foul. He hit one of two free throws, giving the Wildcats a four point lead with two minutes to go.
The Wildcats were able to hold onto that lead this time, winning the game 71-64.
Tonagel said his team came out soft on both ends of the court but also gave credit to his opponent.
“They got down 13, they didn’t fold, and I thought really they played harder than us in many stretches of the game,” Tonagel said.
Bob Peters (so) scored 15 points and had six assists. Photo by Amanda Couser.
DJ Bettinger really kept the team alive, shooting 6-10 from three for a total of 18 points. He also chipped in three rebounds, one assist, and one steal.
“We’ve always had different guys step up, and DJ, he came through tonight and really covered for a lot of different guys,” Coach Tonagel said about the senior from Richfield, Ohio.
Bob Peters led the team in assists with six and also scored 15 points, thanks in large part to his 8-9 shooting from the charity stripe.
Jacob Johnson (fr), Aaron Murray (so), and Jonny Marlin (jr) were able to provide a spark off the bench as they scored a total of 23 points with eight rebounds and four assists.
Although the Wildcats struggled shooting throughout the game (42.3 percent), they were able to knock down 45.5 percent of their threes, making six more than Spring Arbor.
The Wildcats move onto the semifinals, and will play a hot Mount Vernon Nazarene University team on Saturday, February 28 at 3:00 pm in Luckey Arena.