MOUNT PLEASANT, Iowa - The Westminster College Blue Jays' four-game winning streak came to an end after a 79-61 St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference loss to the Iowa Wesleyan University Tigers on Saturday.
Westminster (16-7, 12-4 SLIAC) was tied with Greenville (Illinois) College for first place in the SLIAC entering Saturday's game. Greenville hosted Principia (Illinois) College in a SLIAC matchup Saturday night. Iowa Wesleyan (15-8, 11-5) sits in third place.
The Blue Jays - who defeated Iowa Wesleyan 91-88 on Jan. 11 in Fulton - trailed 34-31 at halftime. The Tigers opened the second half with a 10-2 run to extend their lead to 44-33 with 16 minutes, 11 seconds remaining in the contest.
Iowa Wesleyan then used an 8-0 to open up a 62-50 edge with 6:17 to play.
"It was a tough day for us today," Westminster head coach Matt Mitchell said. "We were flat and looked as if the heavy schedule of games finally caught up to us."
Junior forward Romo Tabb led the Blue Jays with a game-high 22 points as Westminster shot just 35 percent (23-of-65) from the field, including a miserable 19 percent (3-of-16) from 3-point range.
"There was a lid on the basket today," Mitchell said. "We shot as poorly today as we have all year."
Junior center Sean O'Brien added 12 points for the Blue Jays and junior guard Tanner Cochran came up with 10.
Junior guard Jimmy Villalobos collected a team-high eight rebounds as Westminster was outrebounded 37-28.
CJ Singletary knocked down three of the Tigers' 14 3-pointers to direct Iowa Wesleyan - which shot 50 percent (31-of-62) as a team - with 20 points. Steven Soukup finished with 13 points, Brock Butler had 12 and Elijah Johnson and Austin Walker both tallied 11.
Westminster plays a SLIAC game at Eureka (Illinois) College at 5 p.m. Wednesday. The Blue Jays beat the Red Devils 79-60 last Monday in Fulton.