IWU 88 Illinois College 75

It was great to see Darius Gant take the game over like he did when things got tough for the Titans. After Illinois College took the 1-point lead early in the 2nd half, Darius scored 18 points the rest of the way. Now the key is for Darius to find a way to play with that much intensity and focus every minute he's on the floor. If he can find a way to do that, this will be a good team.

It was also nice to see Travis Rosenkranz have his best collegiate game. Travis, who missed the entire 5-week preseason with that back injury, looked like he was really in the flow last night from the opening tip for the first time. The kid has so much talent and is a pleasure to watch. He won't score 20 points every night out, but I look for him to keep settling in more and more and the season progresses.

Jordan Morris really got the Titans out of the gate quickly...9 points in the first 3 1/2 minutes. He is now 10-22 (.455) from beyond the arc on the season, which is outstanding. Another guy that really worked hard to get stronger and better in the off-season and it's paying off.

Two other quick thoughts. 1) Much better FT shooting (22-30), especially when it mattered -- 13-15 in the final 10 minutes of the game. 2) Much better perimeter defense. IC shot just 8-30 from 3. Really, there was just one lapse -- Joe Womble's 3-3 flurry from 19:15 to 17:59 in the 2nd half. Besides that, the Titans really covered the shooters well.

The Titans didn't beat UW-Stevens Point last night, but if you were there, you know that a lot of good things happened on the floor last night. Solid win.

Here are the scoring totals from the JV's win:

Brian Nussbaum - 17
Edmond O'Callaghan -15
Elias Washington - 9
Duncan Lawson - 8
Justin Anthony - 7
Chris Stamas - 6
Josh Sutton - 5
Robert Beauchamp - 2

Nussbaum looked good out there - if he can stay healthy, he has a chance to get in the varsity mix.