MARION, Ind. -- A packed Luckey Arena witnessed a heartbreaking defeat for the No. 14-ranked Indiana Wesleyan University men's basketball team on Tuesday evening.

Grant County rival Taylor (Ind.) University (19-10, 8-9 MCC) spoiled Senior Night as the Trojans upset the Wildcats 77-66. Taylor finishes the season sweep of Indiana Wesleyan and ends the IWU six game win streak.

"There's nothing guaranteed at this point in postseason play," said Indiana Wesleyan head coach Greg Tonagel. "There's basketball to be played and it's an absolute must win for us on Saturday."

Indiana Wesleyan (19-10, 11-6 MCC) travels to Goshen (Ind.) College on Saturday for the regular season finale. Indiana Wesleyan (11-6) is currently in second, one game behind Grace (Ind.) College (12-5) and one game ahead of Marian (Ind.) University (10-7). An IWU win and Grace loss on Saturday would give Indiana Wesleyan a tie of the MCC title and the No. 1-seed in the MC Tournament. An IWU victory and Grace win would give IWU the No. 2-seed in the tournament or an IWU loss and Marian win moves Indiana Wesleyan to the No. 3-seed.

A huge factor in the game Tuesday was the play of the Taylor bench as TU outscored IWU 35-to-7 off the bench. Sophomore guard Ben Raichel was the difference with a career-high 24 points on 6-of-7 shooting and 3-of-4 from beyond the arc. Raichel, who was averaging just 5.1 points, was a perfect 9-of-9 from the foul line.

"He was the difference in the ballgame," said Tonagel. "He sure stepped up his game today."

Indiana Wesleyan rarely led on Tuesday as Taylor controlled the tempo and the scoreboard. A 15-13 lead was the final advantage Indiana Wesleyan held in the game with 11:30 left in the opening half.

Taylor led by as many as nine (29-20) in the first half and took a 36-30 advantage into halftime.

The Wildcats scored 10 of the first 14 points in the second half to tie the score at 40-40 when sophomore guard Jordan Weidner connected on a pair of free throws. Weidner ended the evening with 15 points.

But over the next seven minutes the Taylor defense limited Indiana Wesleyan to just three points. In that time Taylor built a 53-43 lead with 8:20 left. Indiana Wesleyan never recovered as Taylor built the difference to as many as 14 (65-51) with under two minutes to play. Indiana Wesleyan kept fouling over the final two minutes but would get no closer than seven (73-66).

"In some ways we look like the December and January Wildcats," stated Tonagel. "We just forced and pressed. It's not good. We found out that's how we lose ballgames. That's how we lost 9-of-13. We have three home losses to the bottom half of this league. Every one of them we forced and get out of flow. I thought we had broken out of that because we've really been focusing on that. We reverted back to some bad habits tonight."

The Trojans hit 59.0-percent (23 of 39) from the floor and were at 71.4-percent (25 of 35) from the foul line. Indiana Wesleyan hit 45.1-percent (23 of 51) from the field and held a small 27-25 advantage on the boards.

Junior forward Patrick Hopkins paced Indiana Wesleyan with 26 points and nine rebounds. Hopkins was 10-of-14 from the field. He had 24 points with 16 minutes remaining but scored just two points the rest of the way.

"Hopkins played well," added Tonagel. "I didn't think we got him the ball enough when we rushed. We should have been moving the ball around and finding him. We didn't do that and we had guys try to make plays. That's kind of been the tendency of this team. Trying to get it all back and you can't do that."

Indiana Wesleyan completes the regular season on Saturday at Goshen.

Game Photos