Tigers claw past Bellevue in OT

MOUNT PLEASANT, Iowa -- On a day where neither team shot the ball well, Iowa Wesleyan University did just enough offensively to outlast the Bellevue University men's basketball team, defeating the Bruins 80-71 in overtime on Saturday evening at Ruble Arena.

Iowa Wesleyan improves to 5-8 on the year while Bellevue sees its overall mark slip to 7-6.

Eric Pierce scored 22 and grabbed 10 rebounds to record his first double-double of the season. Vinny Belcaster and Paulo Araujo joined him in double figures with 20 and 11 points, respectively. Justin Motley scored eight and pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds.

Joey Brown led the Tigers with 29 points and Kaleb Cresswell joined him in double figures with 12.

Iowa Wesleyan led from the start, with Francis Okwuosah converting an old-fashioned three-point play on the Tigers' opening possession.

Trailing 12-9, Bellevue rattled off seven-straight points, highlighted by bookend steals and layups from Pierce, the latter of which going for an and-one of his own.

IWU responded by taking a 20-19 lead on a Jared Arellano layup with 9:19 to play. Belcaster answered at the 8:30 mark but that was the last Bruin lead of the half.

Iowa Wesleyan closed the first half on a 19-8 run, taking a 39-29 advantage into halftime. The Tigers shot 50% for the half and led by Brown's 15 points, including a trio of three-pointers.

Iowa Wesleyan largely kept Bellevue at arm's length for the first 14 minutes of the second half. With 5:57 remaining, Jerome Bynum sank a corner three off a kick-out pass from Belcaster to pull the Bruins within three, 59-56, the closest they had been since 32-29.

Pierce recorded the next three Bruin points to tie the game and Belcaster gave BU its first lead since the 8:30 of the first half with a driving layup.

In the final minute, Brown made a reverse layup to tie the game at 63-all. At the Bellevue end, Belcaster collected his own miss and got the ball to Pierce for a layup and 65-63 Bellevue lead.

Brown sank a pair of free throws with 16.9 seconds on the clock. The Bruins had three chances on their final possession but a pair of missed layups and a tip-in at the buzzer advanced the game to overtime.

Brown buried his fourth three of the game to open the extra period and the Tigers never again trailed. Bellevue shot just 2-of-9 from the floor and turned the ball over twice while IWU shot 4-of-7 and hit on 6-of-8 free throws in the extra session, turning the ball over just once with two seconds left.

Bellevue travels to California next week for a pair of games. The Bruins face Westcliff University on Thursday, Dec. 16 and the University of Saint Katherine on Saturday, Dec. 18. to close out a 10-game road trip.