MARION, Ind. (Box Score) -- Twenty-six second half points by senior guard Antonio Murrell was not enough as Bethel (Ind.) College defeated the Indiana Wesleyan University men's basketball team 76-70 in a battle of top-10 teams.

Bethel moves into sole possession of first place in the Mid-Central College Conference with the victory at 8-2. Indiana Wesleyan falls to second and is tied with Grace (Ind.) College at 7-3.

Luckey Arena was packed in a ?White Out' for the pivotal match up that featured the No. 2-ranked Pilots and No. 8-ranked Wildcats.

Neither team was able to get much of a rhythm offensively in the first 20 minutes of play. Indiana Wesleyan seemed poised to take the first lead greater than four points with just under five minutes to play in the half. The Wildcats led 20-16 as the Pilots only mustered two points during a six minute drought.

But the Wildcats were unable to capitalize due to turnovers and the potent Pilot attack finally made some noise as Bethel rattled off a 13-2 spurt for a 29-22 advantage with 57 seconds until half.

IWU (19-5) cut the deficit to three points with 17 seconds on the clock but a field goal by Bethel junior forward Tyler Brown at the buzzer gave the Pilots a 31-26 lead heading into the break.

Indiana Wesleyan committed 13 turnovers in the opening frame and shot 36.0-percent (9 of 25).

A pair of free throws by IWU senior forward Landon Adler brought the Wildcats within two points at 34-32 with 18:01 to play in the second half. Bethel was then able to dominate action over the next four and a half minutes with a 17-3 run fueled by six different Pilots scoring during the stretch.

Bethel (22-2) still led by 16 points (52-36) with 12:50 left in the game before Murrell and Adler put Indiana Wesleyan on their backs to claw back into the contest. Murrell scored nine points and Adler added six in a 17-4 run that peaked at a 56-53 Bethel lead with 6:11 to go.

Pilot senior forward William Walker responded with eight of the next nine Bethel points in a three minute span to ignite a 9-2 run to give the Pilots a 65-55 advantage with 3:19 on the clock. Walker's scoring binge continued on as he scored 13 of 14 Bethel points en route to a 24 point night.

Murrell continued to keep the Wildcats close in the final two minutes of play. He scored the team's final 13 points in the last 1:57 of the contest to give IWU a chance. The Wildcats closed the gap to 72-67 with 21 seconds left, but the Pilots connected on four free throws in the last 12 seconds to close out the game for the 76-70 victory.

Murrell ended the night with a game-high 30 points on 11-of-21 shooting. Adler added his ninth double-double of the season with 17 points and 17 rebounds and Coverstone had his third double-double with 10 points and 10 boards.

The Wildcats ended the evening with a season-low 39.3-percent (24 of 61) shooting and were just 3-of-15 (20.0-percent) from deep. IWU out-rebounded Bethel 45-to-36.

Bethel received a huge effort off the bench and out-scored Indiana Wesleyan 28-11 in that department. Brown chipped in 14 points and junior forward Wes Laidig added 12 off the bench for the Pilots. Bethel shot 45.9-percent (28 of 61) as a team and committed just nine turnovers.

Indiana Wesleyan takes the weekend off and will next play at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, February 3 as the Wildcats travel to play Huntington (Ind.) University.