In one of the most sporadic finishes to a basketball game, the Beavers were one bucket away from knocking off the top ranked team in conference for the second time of the season.  St. Louis Intercollegiate Conference leader Iowa Wesleyan entered the evening with only one conference loss on the season.  Blackburn was on the brink of making it two, before a late surge by the Tigers gave them the win 82-81.

It was exciting from tipoff with Iowa Wesleyan gaining a slight edge, pulling ahead early 14-6.  Then Damon Goodloe Jr. caught fire and score the Beavers next seven points.  One Goodloe Jr run assisted by a Reed Rusten layup, the Beavers caught up to the Tigers 16-15.  Blackburn finally managed to take the lead.  From that point on, they took over and went into half time leading 46-42.

In the second half Iowa Wesleyan rallied back and tied things up at 56.  However Blackburn went on a 17-7 run to jump ahead to a ten point lead 73-63.  But once again the Tigers fought back and tied the game at 79 with 1:15 left in the game. 

With 1:13 left, Wesleyan hit two clutch free throws to take the lead 80-79.  But Chris Davis answered back with a contested layup to put the Beavers ahead once again 81-80.  However Iowa Wesleyan would not go quietly with another clutch basket with 41 seconds left to take the lead 82-81. 

At this point the game became chaotic as the Beavers attempted to seal the win.  Trying to score the go-ahead bucket, Iowa Wesleyan knocked the ball out of bounds.  But the play ran so much time off the shot clock, it was a violation as there was no change of position. 

Now with only eight seconds left in the game, Blackburn was forced to foul to send the Tigers to the line. Wesleyan missed the free throw but got the rebound.  However Jaime Moore forced a turnover, giving the Beavers the ball for one last shot.

After inbounding the ball a controversial call led to a Blackburn turnover, where Chris Davis was forced out of bounds, giving Iowa Wesleyan the ball.  Yet Wesleyan immediately threw the inbound pass out of bounds, thus giving  Blackburn the ball at half court with two seconds left on the clock.

But unfortunately, the Beavers could not get a clean shot off, and dropped the game to the Tigers.

Jaime Moore led all scorers with 22 points with a game-high 6 boards.  DeAndre Manuel had 16, while Jake Lochhead was a perfect 6-6 off the bench scoring 10 points.

This loss puts Blackburn at 4-10, with a conference record of 3-4.  Despite the loss, the Beavers are still in a four-way tie for fourth place in conference.  Next up the Beavers will be on the road at Eureka College this Saturday at 3:00 pm.  Eureka is one of the teams currently tied with Blackburn in the standings.