Marion, Ind. – The Marian men's basketball team fell short on Saturday afternoon as they lost a tough battle to No. 13 Indiana Wesleyan 82-76 inside Luckey Arena. Marian is now 19-8 overall and 9-8 in Crossroads League as they go into their final week of the regular season.
Marian trailed 8-3 at the 17:51 mark, but a Luke Gohmann three-pointer gave the Knights some life as it sparked a 9-0 run. The run saw Taeshon Cherry get hot as he scored seven points during it to help his team gain the 15-8 lead. Back-to-back buckets from Indiana Wesleyan ended the scoring drought, and the two teams began trading points for the next few possessions. Gavin Foe found Josh Bryan for the three to put the Knights up 22-14, forcing the 30 second timeout for the Wildcats.
Neither team could score for nearly two minutes of action before a long ball from IWU at the 6:35 mark that started a 7-0 run to cut their deficit to 22-21. The Knights were not bothered as Cherry and Christian Harvey combined for the next 10 points to put their squad up by nine. The Wildcats put together another small run that saw a layup with 41 seconds remaining in the first half to put them within three at 36-33. Luke Heady had the last word of the half as he got the breakaway layup with time winding down to give Marian the 38-33 advantage at the break.
Indiana Wesleyan continued to claw their way back after they came out with an 9-2 run to start the second half and take the lead at 42-40. Back-to-back layups from Cherry and a three-pointer from Gohmann allowed Marian to go back up by five with 15:43 to play. A lot of back-and-forth action would happen through the next few minutes before Brody Whitaker canned the trey on the find from Harvey to give the Knights the 58-50 advantage.
The game was nearly scoreless for the next two minutes until Seth Maxwell completed the and-one play to get his team rolling. Marian was unable to execute on their next trip down the floor, leading to Maxwell hitting a pair of free throws on the other end to even the score at 58 apiece. IWU grabbed the three-point lead with 7:58 to go, but Heady hit a bigtime three moments later to tie it back up. Neither team could seem to slip away from the other until a dunk from Maxwell ignited a bit of a spark for the Wildcats, and eventually giving them the advantage at 73-66 with 2:49 remaining. Cherry cut the deficit to three after hitting a pair of freebies, however with time expiring the Knights were forced to foul, sending IWU to the line. Harvey scored four points in the final 13 seconds, but the Wildcats hit from the line and were able to hold off the Knights to win 82-76.
Cherry led with 24 points to go along with two blocks and two steals. Whitaker and Harvey each added 13 points, while dishing out six and four assists, respectively. Heady added seven points off the bench and Gohmann corralled a team-best five rebounds.
Marian will be back in action next Saturday when they wrap up the regular season hosting Taylor at 3 p.m. on Senior Day.
