No. 18 Illinois Wesleyan crushes North Park

Tyler Burdine
Tyler Burdine reaches for a North Park shot attempt in Illinois Wesleyan’s win over North Park on Saturday at Shirk Center. (Photo by WJBC)

By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – A far cry from their one-point difference when the two teams played in Chicago just two weeks earlier, No. 18 Illinois Wesleyan had no trouble in their rematch with North Park on Saturday.

IWU pounded the VIkings, 87-47, in a College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin matchup at Shirk Center on Pink Zone night.

PODCAST: Listen to the postgame interviews with IWu coach Ron Rose and junior Danny Baker on WJBC. 

Brady Rose led IWU with 22 points, including a three-pointer in the final seconds before halftime as IWU (16-3, 9-1 in the CCIW) grabbed a 49-32 lead at the break. The Vikings (4-15, 1-9) pulled within 51-38 at the 17:56 mark, before the Titans burst the game open with a 34-4 run.

Charlie Bair led the Titans with nine rebounds while playing only the final eight minutes of the game and added five points.

IWU controlled the boards, 53-30, against a smaller NPU team.

The Titans visit No. 5 Augustana on Wednesday.

IWU women

The Titan women (17-2, 10-0) cruised to their 15th consecutive victory, 105-53, earlier at Shirk. Ashley Schneider led IWU with 18 points as the Titans made 72 percent of their field goal tries in the second half . IWU reaches the 100-point mark in back-to-back games for the first time since the 1995-96 season.

The Titan women wore commemorate pink jerseys as part of ‘Pink Zone; to raise money and awareness for breast cancer. The funds support the Community Cancer Center in Normal.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected]

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