POINT LOOKOUT, Mo. -- No. 5 Indiana Wesleyan University men’s basketball advanced to its fifth ever NAIA Division II Men’s Basketball Elite Eight on Friday afternoon following an 87-75 victory over unseeded Oklahoma Wesleyan in the Sweet 16 in Point Lookout, Missouri.

The story of the game was free throws and rebounding. Indiana Wesleyan set a new program record with 57 free throw attempts which is tied for the most in NAIA Division II national tournament history. IWU shot poorly from the line as they hit 35-of-57 free throws (61.4-percent) but the 35 made free throws is tied for fifth more in tournament history.

“I said in the locker room that has to be an IWU record,” said Indiana Wesleyan head coach Greg Tonagel. “It didn’t cross my mind that it could be a national tournament record.”

“This tournament has been called completely different than it has in the past,” laughed Tonagel. “Every game we have watched they called it like the regular season. The last month we’ve been telling our guys don’t overreact to calls because they don’t call them. But here we are shooting 57 free throws.”

Indiana Wesleyan (28-6) absolutely dominated the boards today as they out-rebounded Oklahoma Wesleyan 59-27. IWU had 15 offensive rebounds and held Oklahoma Wesleyan to just 3. The 59 rebounds is third most in tournament history and was just two shy of the record of 61 set by Embry-Riddle (Fla.) in 1999.

“We knew for us to win that we were going to have to be physical,” added Tonagel. “They are a finesse team that shoots a lot of 3’s. Our main key was to establish the paint which we did. And then the rebounding disparity. We went from being outrebounded on the glass last night and giving up 21 offensive rebounds and today getting 15 ourselves. We pounded them on the glass.”

The Wildcats nearly led the entire game as the Eagles managed a one point lead twice in the opening half. A key stretch in the contest came with 4:27 left before halftime with the Wildcats leading 28-24. Jordan Weidner (SR, Danville, Ind.) and RJ Mahurin (SR, Rockville, Ind.) -- with two fouls apiece -- each came out of the game and did not see the floor again until the second half. But the Wildcats doubled the lead in their absence to take a 36-28 lead into intermission.

Indiana Wesleyan was unable to increase their lead to more than eight points in the first 14 minutes of the second half. Nate Bubash gave IWU its fourth such eight point lead on a basket with 6 minutes remaining. But once again the Wildcats were unable to push it to 10 as Oklahoma Wesleyan scored with 5:46 remaining to trim the score to 65-59. The basket led to an Indiana Wesleyan timeout.

The Wildcats roared out of the stoppage and scored the next five points to build their largest lead of 11 points at 70-59 with 4:29 left.

“We just have great senior leadership,” said Tonagel about the timeout. “There is not much to be said when you have guys that believe in themselves and more importantly in each other. When we break the huddle there is a lot of unity there and when you have unity a lot of great things can happen.”

The Eagles would get no closer than seven points (74-67) the rest of the way.

The Indiana Wesleyan bench continues to shine in Missouri as they combined for 25 points and 21 rebounds.

“Our bench was awesome tonight and that is what you need out here to win,” said Tonagel. “How about Tyler Greathouse (JR, Columbus, Ind.) making huge plays on the offensive glass, Kylan Dubbels (SO, Kokomo, Ind.) making some great plays again, Nate Bubash continues to be spectacular, and Bob Peters (FR, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio) was awesome. You come to expect that from Bob. He didn’t look like a freshman today.”

Peters scored 15 points off the bench and was 9-of-12 from the foul line. Tyler Greathouse made an immediate impact in limited time in the second half with 4 key points and 3 rebounds while Nate Bubash had 4 points and 11 rebounds.

Jordan Weidner led all scorers with 23 points and a career-best 9 rebounds. Weidner was 9-of-14 from the foul line and dished out a game-high 4 assists. RJ Mahurin added 15 points and 8 boards while Zac Vandewater (JR, Warsaw, Ind.) contributed 9 points and tied a career-high with 12 rebounds.

Indiana Wesleyan will next play the winner of No. 4 Cornerstone (Mich.) and Friends (Kan.) in a contest will be played later today. The Elite Eight game will be played at 4 p.m. ET on Saturday. The Elite Eight appearance for Indiana Wesleyan is the fifth since 2007 and first since 2011.