Trailing by seven (32-25) at halftime, the Vikings quickly fell behind by 13 (38-25) when Adam Dauksas hit the second of two straight three point field goals at 18:01. From there, Augustana went to work at slowly chipping away at the lead. A basket by Dain Swetalla, two free throws by Drew Wessels and a three point field goal by Jay McAdams-Thornton trimmed the lead to six (38-32) with 15:37 left. Dauksas hit another three point field goal at 15:13 and Keelan Amelianovich nailed a three pointer at 14:37. Those were sandwiched around two free throws by the Vikings Rick Harrigan. When Amelianovich hit his three the score stood at 44-34.
Harrigan then scored the next seven points to cut the lead to 44-41 with 12:16 left to play. Wesleyan’s Zach Freeman and Augustana’s Wessels traded free throws before Cory Jones scored on a dunk for the Titans with 10:43 to make it 47-42 in favor of the home team. Over the next 10 minutes the Vikings put on the defensive clamp on the Wesleyan offense and held it without a field goal. The Titans only had five free throws to show for their effort and did not score another field goal until Dauksas scored on a mid-range jumper with :30 left in the game.
By that time Augustana had regained the lead and was on its way to an important league victory. The first lead came at 4:07 when Swetalla scored a layup on a perfect feed from Wessels to put the Vikings in front 51-50. Freeman made two free throws with 3:46 left to put Wesleyan back on top 52-51. Wessels then broke down the defense with a drive down the baseline and found McAdams-Thornton all alone out front for a wide open three point attempt. He buried it and put his team in front for good 54-52 at 3:00. He made two free throws at 2:26 to bump the advantage to 56-52. It stayed that way until Dauksas broke Wesleyan’s field goal drought with :30 left. With :16 remaining Harrigan made his first free throw but missed a second to leave the door open for the Titans at 57-54.
Wesleyan had trouble getting a shot off and Freeman was fouled with four seconds remaining. However, he missed both free throws and McAdams-Thornton grabbed the rebound and flipped it to Nate Swetalla as the gun went off.
McAdams-Thornton led Augustana in scoring with 16 points and Harrigan, the leading scorer in the CCIW had 15. Harrigan made just three of 13 shots from the field and two of five from three point range but he was seven of nine from the free throw line and led the team in rebounding with six. Wessels had four assists and two steals.
Illinois Wesleyan got 13 points from Dauksas and Freeman and 12 out of Cory Jones. Amelianovich grabbed 10 rebounds to pace the Titans on the boards. One of the key statistics in the game was the 21 Titan turnovers.
Augustana moved to 17-1 overall and 7-0 in the CCIW while Wesleyan fell to 14-3 and 4-3.