MOUNT PLEASANT, Iowa. – The Westminster men's basketball was defeated by Iowa Wesleyan in St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference matchup on Wednesday night. The Blue Jays fall to 6-5 in SLIAC play with the loss while the Tigers improve to 4-7.

After Trenton Barbour made a jumper to open the game the Tigers made a pair of layups to take a 4-2 lead before a three from Emil Spriggs up Westminster ahead 5-4. The Blue Jays then scored five unanswered points to take a 10-5 lead with 15:49 left in the half. Westminster remained a step ahead of the Tigers for the rest of the half to take a slight 40-37 lead into halftime.

In the second half, an Omar Wright layup extended the Westminster lead to 11 points with just over 15 minutes left play. Over the next 10 minutes of gameplay, the Tigers chipped away at the lead and tied the game at 72-72 with a layup with 5:01 left on the clock. Spriggs put the Blue Jays back on top 75-72 with a layup and free throw. However, the Tigers scored the next eight points to take an 80-75 lead. With 1:56 to go Jaxon Althaus cut the lead to 80-77 but the Blue Jays could not make a shot from the floor in the closing minutes. Iowa Wesleyan added five more points off free throws to win the game by a score of 85-79.

Wright was the leading scorer for the Blue Jays finishing with 19 points off the bench. Landon Harrison recorded his third double-double of the season with 12 points and 13 rebounds.

Westminster will play again on Saturday at 3:00 PM against Eureka. The Blue Jays will be wearing gold shoelaces to raise awareness of pediatric cancer and fans are encouraged to bring donations of gift cards, pillows, stuffed animals, and blankets to benefit the Super Sam Foundation.