MT. PLEASANT, Iowa – The Spalding men's basketball team defense shut down Iowa Wesleyan to top the Tigers, 66-48, Saturday to improve to 9-10 overall and 8-4 in the SLIAC.

THE BASICS
THE SCORE: Spalding 66 – Iowa Wesleyan 48
LOCATION: Ruble Arena| Mt. Pleasant, Iowa
RECORDS: Spalding 9-10 (8-4 SLIAC) | Iowa Wesleyan 5-14 (3-9 SLIAC)

HOW IT HAPPENED
- Spalding and Iowa Wesleyan exchanged leads during the first seven and a half minutes. Sophomore Marcus Montgomery hit a layup in transition to put the Golden Eagles up by one, 13-12, with 12:16 left in the first half. Spalding's defense forced six turnovers which led to an 18-7 run over the next 10 minutes to put the Golden Eagles up, 31-19, with 2:27 left before halftime. After junior Dominique Ellis split a pair of free-throws with 1:19 remaining, sophomore Brendan Holt grabbed a defensive rebound, leading to another fast break layup by Montgomery to put Spalding ahead 34-19 going into halftime.

- The lead continued to grow in the second half as the Golden Eagles' Troy Amanor hit two free-throws to push the lead to 17. Robert Bendingfield hit a three-pointer to push the lead to 39-19. The Tigers finally hit a shot for the first time in six minutes as Austin Rebel hit a contested layup to cut the lead back down to 18. Although Rebel's layup gave Iowa Wesleyan a second wind, Spalding never stopped pressuring the ball and the Golden Eagles went on to win the game 66-48.

NOTABLE STATS
- Dominique Ellis and Marcus Montgomery both scored 14 points and grabbed five rebounds for Spalding. Freshman Troy Amanor had 12 points and grabbed five boards. Brendan Holt had a massive night, being active on the glass and pulling down 11 rebounds, while also adding four points.
 
- The Golden Eagles forced the Tigers to take tough shots all night long. Spalding's defense held Iowa Wesleyan to only 19-66 (28.8%), while the Golden Eagles shot 27-60 (45.0%) from the floor. Spalding also outscored the Tigers in the paint 30-20. Bench points and free-throw shooting also played a part in Spalding's victory. The Golden Eagles hit 72.7% of their free throws while the Tigers hit only 33.3%. Spalding's bench also added 13 points while Iowa Wesleyan's bench scored five.

FOR THE FOES
- Alberto Torres ended the game with 15 points, leading all scorers.  Jarryd Fernandes had a double-double, pulling down 14 rebounds and scoring 13 points. Lastly, Jake Neubauer added 11 points and 5 rebounds for the Tigers.
 
UP NEXT
- The Golden Eagles are back in action Wednesday, January 30^th taking on Webster at Grant Gymnasium at 8:00 pm EST.