STERLING - Coming off a big win on Monday over Southwestern, the Kansas Wesleyan men's basketball team made it two in a row and cruised to a 99-64 win over Sterling on Thursday night inside the Gleason Center.
The victory marked back-to-back wins for the Coyotes, who improved to 16-7 overall and 11-7 in the rugged Kansas Conference, while Sterling fell to 2-21 overall and 0-17 in KCAC play.
After Jun Murdock (SO/Wichita, Kan.)'s triple to open the game, the Coyotes got four straight by AJ Range (SR/Junction City, Kan.) to take a quick 7-0 lead with 18:35 left in the first half.
Sterling got within six at 10-4, but a steal by Murdock and subsequent layup by Alex Littlejohn (FR/Newton, Kan.) with 12:49 to go in the half capped a 13-3 run by Wesleyan that made it 23-7.
The Warriors would get back within eight with 3:10 to go in the half before the Coyotes would extend the lead to 49-36 on Murdock's score at the half time buzzer.
Wesleyan continued to pull away in the second half, pushing the lead out to 20 for the first time at 60-40 on Littlejohn's triple with 14:50 to go.
KWU led 62-44 with 11:50 to go in the game when the defense came alive for the Coyotes holding Sterling without a point for over four minutes, while the offense built a 79-44 lead on the heels of a 17-0 run that was snapped when Sterling scored with 7:40 left.
Wesleyan flirted with the century mark as free throws by Noah Eichelberger (SR/Moundridge, Kan.) with 24 seconds left made it 99-64 and the Coyotes pulled down a miss by Sterling, but elected to run out the clock.
Tyus Jeffries (SR/Oklahoma City, Okla.) led the Coyotes with 16 points, while Littlejohn had 13 and Murdock 10 to pace a balanced effort by the Coyotes who saw 15 of 17 players score while going 31 of 57 from the field for 54.4 percent.
KWU outrebounded Sterling 34-24 led by eight from Littlejohn and seven by Trey Duffey (SO/Topeka, Kan.).
Wesleyan is back in action on Saturday hosting Tabor at 7 p.m. inside Mabee Arena.