HILLSBORO - Kansas Wesleyan Men's Basketball ended its four-game losing streak on Saturday as the Coyotes beat Tabor College Bluejays 87-74 inside the Tabor Gym.
The win improves the Coyotes' record to 11-13 overall and 6-12 in the Kansas Conference and keeps hope alive for KWU to earn a spot in the KCAC playoffs with four games left in the regular season.
It was nearly a wire-to-wire win for the Coyotes, as Tabor only led twice at the beginning of the game, scoring first. And again at 5-4 with 17:09 left in the first half. After that it was all Coyotes, even though Wesleyan struggled to pull away until the second half.
A 3-pointer by Izaiah Hale gave the Coyotes an early 15-7 lead with 13:31 to go, and a bucket by Stefan Spray with 8:53 left gave the Coyotes a 25-14 lead.
Tabor cut the Coyote lead to three at 29-26 with 5:14 to go in the first, but Gabe Phillips' bucket with eight seconds left in the half pushed Wesleyan's lead back out to 10 points at 43-33 at the half.
The Bluejays got within six with 16 minutes to go at 49-43, but a quick five-point spurt by the Coyotes capped by Alex Littlejohn's bucket with 14:25 left gave KWU a 54-43 lead.
Tabor again cut into the Coyote lead, trimming it to five with 10 minutes left at 61-56, but Aiden Leckband's triple pushed the difference back out to double digits at 66-56.
Again the Bluejays pressed back, getting within six at 66-60 with nine minutes left.
Wesleyan then settled in and finally pulled away using a 16-3 run to take an 82-63 lead with 4:17 left.
Littlejohn was again huge for the Coyotes tying his career high of 34 points set earlier this season, on 10 of 14 field goals and knocked down 14 of 16 free throws, while pulling down 16 rebounds and handing out six assists. Landon Wagler had 13 points as well.