GOSHEN, Ind. -- No. 14-ranked Indiana Wesleyan University men's basketball claimed their fourth straight Mid-Central College Conference regular season championship on Saturday afternoon in yet another thrilling win. This time, Indiana Wesleyan edged Goshen (Ind.) College 75-74.

The Wildcats were once 5-5 in the conference and were three games out of the race. But the Wildcats finished with wins in seven of their last eight games to stake a share of the MCC title with Grace (Ind.) College at identical 12-5 records. The title is the fourth straight for IWU and the fifth in the last six seasons.

Indiana Wesleyan (20-10, 12-6 MCC) will be the MCC Tournament's No. 1-seed virtue of its head-to-head sweep of Grace. With the No. 1-seed in the conference tournament Indiana Wesleyan secures the conference's first of two automatic berths. The tournamet winner, or if Indiana Wesleyan wins the tournament, the runner-up, will receive the second bid.

To get to this point, Indiana Wesleyan needed a win on Saturday and get some help from none other than Grant County rival Taylor (Ind.) University. An Indiana Wesleyan win and a Taylor win versus Grace would allow IWU to move into a tie atop the standings with the Lancers. Taylor did beat Grace 82-73 in Odle Arena.

The Wildcats never led by more than six in the first half until a pair of free throws by senior guard Derrick Troyer gave IWU a 28-21 lead with 5:11 in the half. IWU built a 10 point advantage (37-27) on a freshman guard DJ Bettinger basket with less than two minutes on the clock. It would be the final IWU points as Indiana Wesleyan held a 37-29 lead at halftime.

Indiana Wesleyan continued to maintain the lead throughout the first 10 minutes of the second half. They pushed the lead to 10 points on three different occasions with the final coming at 59-49 and 9:42 remaining on a sophomore center Parker Stouffer basket in the paint.

Goshen (18-12, 8-10 MCC) held Indiana Wesleyan scoreless over the next three minutes and hit two 3's to pace a 7-0 run and draw within three at 59-56. Indiana Wesleyan stood strong and increased the lead to 65-58 and 6:05 remaining.

The Maple Leafs would make their move via a 10-2 run to gain their first lead since 5-4 early in the contest. Goshen led 68-67 with 3:06 left on a pair of Casey Pratt free throws.

The lead would change hands on each of the next three possessions with the final lead change coming on a pair of junior forward Patrick Hopkins free throws. His two free throws put Indiana Wesleyan back in the lead at 71-70 and 2:02 to play.

Hopkins would stretch the lead to 75-72 on a basket down low with 1:02 remaining. The next Goshen possession resulted in two missed game-tying 3-pointers, a missed field goal, three offensive rebounds and finally a layup by Geoffry Gilot with 5.9 seconds left and IWU up 75-74.

The Maple Leafs fouled sophomore guard Jordan Weidner as soon as the ball was inbounded and he went to the line for two free throws. Weidner missed both but Goshen was forced to race the ball down the court as they were out of timeouts. Nate Manning was two steps past mid-court and heaved the potential game-winning shot, but it was offline as Indiana Wesleyan handed Goshen just its third home loss of the season.

Hopkins came up big in one of the biggest games of the season for Indiana Wesleyan. He led the team with 19 points and six boards despite playing just 21 minutes due to foul trouble. Hopkins did his biggest damage in the final five minutes with the game on the line. The Kokomo, Indiana product scored the Wildcats' final 10 points, including eight points on a perfect 3-of-3 shooting and 2-of-2 from the foul line in the last 2:46 of the game.

The only other Wildcat in double figures was Weidner with 17 points. Troyer added eight points, six rebounds and eight assists while Stouffer contributed nine points and three rebounds off the bench.

Postseason play begins next week with Indiana Wesleyan turning right around for another game with Goshen in the MCC Tournament First Round. The game begins at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, February 22 in Luckey Arena.