MOUNT VERNON, Ohio -- It was not a pretty performance by the No. 1-ranked Indiana Wesleyan University men's basketball team in a come from behind 60-55 victory at Mount Vernon Nazarene (Ohio) University.

Indiana Wesleyan (9-0, 2-0 MCC) never led for the first 35 minutes and 15 seconds of play. But a 3-point bucket by junior guard Aaron Martin gave Indiana Wesleyan the lead for good at 3:03 on the clock.

Sophomore guard Jordan Weidner scored and Martin hit another 3-pointer for an 8-0 run to turn a one point deficit into a seven point lead at 58-51 with 1:43 left.  Martin led the Wildcats in scoring with 11 points.

"We finally hit some shots," said Indiana Wesleyan head coach Greg Tonagel. "We had to rely on our defense or it would have been a 15 point loss. There's going to be games like this but you need to weather it with defense."

The shots started to fall with the Wildcats trailing 48-39 and eight minutes remaining. From that point, the Wildcats ran off a 19-3 run in six plus minutes to gain a 58-51 lead. The Martin led 8-0 run was the tail end of the 19-3 spurt.

Mount Vernon Nazarene (4-6, 0-3 MCC) was forced into 22 turnovers on the day and limited to 35.8-percent (19 of 53) shooting, including 2-of-13 (15.4-percent) from deep.

"After the first 15 minutes, I thought we played some of our best defense of the year," added Tonagel.

Indiana Wesleyan trailed most the game and was behind by as much as 11 points in both halves. Mount Vernon Nazarene led at the break 31-24.

Indiana Wesleyan returns to action at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, December 7 as IWU travels to play No. 12-ranked IU-East in Richmond, Indiana. Indiana Wesleyan defeated IU-East in the NAIA National Championship First Round a season ago.