UPLAND, Ind. -- No. 14-ranked Indiana Wesleyan University men's basketball led for the first 34 minutes of action Tuesday night at Taylor (Ind.) University in Upland, Indiana. Unfortunately, Taylor led when it mattered most.

Nate Casper scored in the paint with 6:44 remaining for the first Trojan lead of the evening at 57-56. The Wildcats never recovered the lead the rest of the game in dropping their seventh game in their last 10 outings.

Indiana Wesleyan (12-7, 4-3 MCC) made one last gasp, trailing 67-61 when Kasper seemed to ice the game for Taylor(14-5, 3-4 MCC) with a field goal with 20 seconds left. But Indiana Wesleyan had no plans on going out quietly.

Senior guard Derrick Troyer scored a layup with 15 seconds to go to cut the score to 67-63. After an IWU foul, Taylor missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw opportunity with 11 seconds remaining. Indiana Wesleyan quickly brought the ball down the floor where junior guard George Jones IV hit a basket in the paint to trim the deficit to 67-65 as 5.6 seconds remained.

Chaos ensued on the inbounds pass. Indiana Wesleyan attempted to force a five second call as Taylor struggled to inbound the ball. As the ball was eventually thrown in, the horn sounded and the inbounds passed found its way out of bounds untouched. The officials conferenced and decided to call a foul on Indiana Wesleyan senior guard David Peters for holding Taylor guard Casey Coons on in the inbounds pass.

Coons hit both free throws for a 69-65 Taylor lead. The Wildcats threw the ball the length of the floor and Jones IV nailed a 3 in the corner for a 69-68 score and 0.8 seconds left. Trojan guard Tommy Peller was fouled and hit two free throws for a 71-68 lead.

Indiana Wesleyan again threw the ball the length of the floor but it went out of bounds untouched. Taylor would throw the ball in to IWU junior guard Aaron Martin who was guarding the inbounds pass on the baseline. He turned and launched the ball the length of the court but it fell well short as Taylor captured the win.

Sophomore guard Jordan Weidner and Jones IV carried the Wildcats with 19 points and 15 points, respectively. Weidner finished 7-of-8 from the floor and 3-of-3 from deep while Jones IV was 7-of-9 shooting. Unfortunately, the rest of the Wildcats totaled 14-of-42 shooting on the evening.

The biggest Achilles heel for Indiana Wesleyan came at the foul line. IWU hit just 4-of-12 (33.3-percent) from the charity stripe compared to 14-of-17 (82.4-percent) for Taylor.

Indiana Wesleyan did hold a large advantage on the glass by outrebounding Taylor 41-26. Junior forward Patrick Hopkins led all players with 16 rebounds and Martin added seven.

The Wildcats return to Luckey Arena for their next game at 3 p.m. on Saturday, January 14 against Bethel (Ind.) College.