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| SportsThursday, December 22, 2005 12:42 PM CST |
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Titans make statement
BLOOMINGTON Having stated its case with a fair degree of basketball eloquence for 30 minutes, Illinois Wesleyan was asked one final time to present its argument as the best team Tuesday at Shirk Center. A determined Hanover squad posed the question by carving a 19-point deficit to nine. The bigger, more athletic Titans responded in the affirmative with a 9-0 run that secured a 72-61 nonconference victory before a crowd of 2,500. "That was definitely the point of the game we had to decide what we wanted to do," said IWU senior Keelan Amelianovich. "I think we handled that pretty well." Avenging two of its five losses last season, No. 1 Wesleyan moved to 8-0 for the first time since 1996-97 in its first and only December home game. No. 14 Hanover fell to 6-3. "We knew they weren't going to die. They have good players. They are never out of a game," Titans' coach Scott Trost said. "We need to get better, but it's a good win. We're excited to be 8-0." An Amelianovich 3-pointer from the key at the 16:55 mark of the second half had extended the Titans' lead to 48-29. With Hanover senior Brian Chrin scoring nine of his team-high 13 points in the surge, the Panthers began chipping away. A Ben Lye steal and layup cut the Wesleyan lead to 56-47 with 9:38 remaining and prompted a Trost timeout. "We were sloppy. I don't think it was necessarily what they did," Trost said. "They backed us in and we didn't defend very well. We turned it over and didn't execute on offense." That would change. And quickly. A Chris Jones dunk and a Zach Freeman free throw pushed the IWU lead back to 12. Amelianovich and Steve Schweer both hit shots in the lane, and a pair of Amelianovich free throws let the Titans breathe a bit easier at 65-47. "We were up the whole game and pretty much felt like we were in control," said Amelianovich, who led all scorers with 18 points. "But teams like that you can't blow out. They keep coming at you every play." Falling behind by 12 in the first half while shooting just 29 percent, Hanover improved to 50 percent after the break behind veterans Chrin and Lye. titans From b1 "There was a stretch we played pretty well," said Panthers' coach Mike Beitzel, who did not have sophomore center Robby Brown because of the flu. "I thought we were improving defensively, but I was disappointed on how many layups they got and some of the decisions we made. "They are a veteran team with a lot of talent executing their offense real well. We weren't good enough to beat a real good team. I don't see them getting beat very often this year." Freeman contributed 15 points, five rebounds and five blocks as the Titans shot 60 percent from the floor. "We may not have destroyed them, but that wasn't our intention anyway," Freeman said. "We wanted to play within ourselves, and I think we did that enough for the win. We've got a lot of things to improve on, but that's why it's early in the year." Cory Jones and Jason Fisher scored nine points each, while reserves Schweer, Chris Jones and Mike McGraw combined to hit 7 of 9 shots and score 16 points. The Titans outrebounded Hanover, 35-24, but matched a season high with 17 turnovers. Lye and Dan O'Leary chipped in 12 points apiece for the Panthers. Hanover leading scorer Clint Parker was held to a lone 3-pointer and was 11 points below his 14-point average. IWU will take a Christmas break before traveling to Santa Barbara, Calif., and meeting No. 5 Puget Sound Dec. 29 in the first round of the Tom Byron Classic. Get area high school sports scores and statistics at Varsity Sports. E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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