BLOOMINGTON -- Ron Rose is excited to see where what has thus far been steady progress will take his Illinois Wesleyan basketball team.

"Every outing from our scrimmages to our Green-White (intrasquad scrimmage), we have shown improvement," Rose said. "If we can get a little better every time out, the end product is going to be pretty good."

Fresh off a season-opening 10-point victory over Benedictine on Sunday, IWU meets Webster Wednesday in a 7:30 p.m. nonconference game at Shirk Center.

"I think we definitely showed we are going to play harder than we did last year," said junior guard Sean Johnson, who complemented forward Doug Sexauer's 25 points with 20 of his own. "It's just game one. We still have a long way to improve."

Based in St. Louis, Webster is beginning its regular season. The Gorloks dropped a 66-47 exhibition game to Division II Drury.

"They have a number of returning players even though they graduated a big chunk of their scoring," said Rose. "They are fairly athletic and play really hard. They are especially good on the defensive end."

Webster was led by the 17 points of 6-foot-4 junior Nick Jones against Drury. The team's most experienced players are 6-3 senior Josue Whitcomb and 6-5 senior John Ortwerth.

The Gorloks also expect three junior college transfers, led by 6-3 junior Drew Moore, to play significant roles.

The IWU junior varsity faces Spoon River College in a 5:15 p.m. preliminary game.

McCullough, Walker sidelined: Wesleyan sophomores Eric McCullough and Dexter Walker are out indefinitely.

McCullough is awaiting clearance to return to practice after his latest examination in a recovery from surgery to both hips.

Walker is battling the effects of a concussion.