[Men's Basketball] Men's Basketball Tops Monmouth for First Win

Monmouth, Illinois - November 25, 2018 - The Iowa Wesleyan men's basketball team overcame an eleven point deficit to take down Monmouth College yesterday.  The Tigers took advantage of 12 steals and 21 points off turnovers to edge out the Fighting Scots by a score of 84-81.

Monmouth opened the game with a 5-0 lead in the first minute of action, but the Tigers answered with a jumper by Austin Rebel (SO/Bassendean, Australia) and a three pointer by Avree Clark (JR/Waterloo, IA) to tie it up early.  The teams traded baskets and the lead until the 13:03 minute mark when the Fighting Scots went back in front with a layup that started a 9-0 run. Avree Clark ended the run by sinking a three pointer for Iowa Wesleyan, bringing the score to 17-22 with 11:20 remaining in the opening half.

As the half continued, the Tigers were able to cut the Fighting Scot lead to three points after a pair of free throws by Brian Patterson (SO/St. Louis, MO) and Alberto Torres (SO/Madrid, Spain).  Monmouth would extend their lead back to 9 with just under six and a half minutes left in the first half. They would hit a three pointer with 4:46 to build an 11 point lead over the Tigers. Iowa Wesleyan did not give up, and with three minutes remaining, Austin Rebel made a jumper and Austin Banks (JR/Apopka, FL) came up with a steal and a layup to cut the deficit to five.  IW scored the final points of the half and only trailed by three at the break after layups by Jake Neubauer (JR/Amana, IA) and Austin Rebel.