BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- The Augustana Vikings men's basketball team was defeated on the road on Saturday, falling to the Illinois Wesleyan Titans by a score of 65-50.

The Titans, who entered Saturday's action last in the CCIW in three-point percentage, saw several of their attempts from downtown go through early on to jump out to a quick 7-0 advantage before stretching it to double figures later on. Trailing 25-14, the Vikings stormed back to get within striking distance, scoring seven of the half's final nine points to make it a 27-21 in favor of the home team heading into the break. Tyler Knuth's and-one basket with under two minutes to go highlighted the spurt as the Vikings saw points from three different players in the run. Augie held Illinois Wesleyan to just one made field goal in the final four minutes.

Augustana grabbed their first and only lead of the game early in the second half, tallying the first seven points to kick things off. Over the next two minutes, the Titans strung together an 11-0 run to reclaim the lead and cushion it back out to double digits. The Vikings successfully cut their deficit in half on multiple occasions, with the latest coming at 42-37 with 12:26 remaining, but again the Titans used the three-point line to push it back out to 10-plus with less than five to go. Augustana was unable to get anything to go from the floor, eventually falling by the 15-point margin.

Chase Larsen led the Vikings in scoring, securing 17 points on 8-15 shooting. Augustana hit just 29.5 percent from the floor and was 3-25 from behind the three-point line. The Titans knocked down 11 three-pointers in the win.

With the loss, Augie drops to 4-12 on the season and 2-5 in the CCIW. The Vikings will return home to face Elmhurst on Wednesday, January 18.