MARION, Ind. -- The Mid-Central College Conference men's basketball opener provided enough theatrics for an entire season on Tuesday night as Indiana Wesleyan University pulled out a thrilling 67-66 victory over Taylor (Ind.) University in Luckey Arena.

The wild finish Tuesday night was capped by a tip-in bucket by Indiana Wesleyan sophomore forward Patrick Hopkins with 1.6 seconds left to give IWU the victory.

Taylor held a 60-52 advantage with 4:55 left on the clock and seemed ready to finish out Indiana Wesleyan.

But Indiana Wesleyan crawled back with a mid-range basket from freshman guard Jordan Weidner, a defensive stop and two free throws by Hopkins to cut the Taylor lead to 60-56 and 4:08 left to play.

But on the next Trojan possession, sophomore guard Tommy Peller drilled a 3-point bucket to take the air out of Luckey as the Trojans upped their lead to 63-56 with 3:44 to go.

Hopkins put the Wildcats on his back as he hit two more free throws and then scored in the paint in back-to-back possession as IWU was suddenly down just three (63-60) with 2:40 remaining. Following a defensive stop, senior forward Will Hubertz drained one of his three 3-pointers to send Luckey into a frenzy as the game was tied 63-63 and under two minutes left on the game clock.

Taylor sophomore guard Casey Coons regained the lead for TU with one free throw at 57 seconds but Hopkins quickly took the lead right back for Indiana Wesleyan with a field goal as 41 seconds remained.

Down by one point with possession of the ball out of bounds under the basket, Taylor junior guard Kyle Hanaway threw the inbounds pass off the back of an IWU defender and Hanaway picked up the ball for the layup and the 66-65 lead with less than 10 seconds on the clock.

Hopkins quickly inbounded the ball to junior guard Derrick Troyer who raced up the floor. Troyer's driving layup was no good but Hopkins, charging down the middle of the lane, tipped the ball back towards the hoop but missed. Hopkins collected his own missed shot and scored with 1.6 seconds left for the 67-66 Indiana Wesleyan lead.

Taylor ran a play for one last attempt but was unable to get a shot off as Indiana Wesleyan collected the conference opening victory.

Hopkins led all players in scoring and rebounding en route to his third double-double of the season. He had 23 points on 8-of-13 shooting while pulling down 10 rebounds, including four on the offensive end.

Weidner continues to excel off the Wildcat bench as he added 14 points on a perfect night of shooting. The freshman was 6-of-6 from the floor including 2-of-2 from 3-point range. Hubertz chipped in with 11 points and Troyer had nine. Weidner dished out four assists and Troyer collected three steals.

Indiana Wesleyan shot 53.2-percent (25 of 47) on the night, including 59.1-percent (13 of 22) in the second half. Taylor was limited to 43.8-percent (21 of 48) shooting.

Taylor was led in scoring by sophomore forward Nate Kasper with 18 points and seven boards. Coons added 13 points and six assists while Hanaway and Peller each finished with nine.

Indiana Wesleyan returns to action this weekend at the Lou Cunningham Classic hosted by Campbellsville (Ky.) University. IWU will play a pair of NAIA DI programs with No. 17-ranked Campbellsville on Friday night at 7 p.m. and University of the Cumberlands (Ky.) at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

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