LINCOLN, Neb. – The Coe College men's basketball team fell 82-76 to #11 Nebraska Wesleyan in a back-and-forth contest on Wednesday evening. Coe trailed by four at the half and fought back to take a five-point lead in the second half but the Prairie Wolves stayed tough and fought back for the come from behind victory. The loss drops the Kohawks to 8-7 overall and 3-3 in the A-R-C while NWU improves to 14-2 overall and 7-0 in the league. 
 
Austin Roth led the Kohawks with 27 points, six assists, five rebounds and one block while Jacob Robertson added 18 points, eight boards and one dime. As a team, Coe shot 50 percent from the floor and a scorching 44 percent from long-distance. 
 
Coe opened the game with confidence, trading buckets with NWU over the first few minutes but the Prairie Wolves got back-to-back 3s from returning first-team all-league player Nate Shimonitz to take a 9-3 lead just four minutes in. The Kohawks then ripped off a 7-2 stretch which included two free throws from Adam McDermott and two buckets from Jacob Robertson to cut the deficit to 11-10 with 14:27 left in the first half. 
 
The teams both settled into the game and exchanged baskets for the next eight-or-so minutes until the 6:08 mark of the half when Coe hit three-straight 3s to put the Kohawks ahead 37-33 with 4:44 left in the frame. Nebraska Wesleyan showed poise despite the Kohawks hot shooting, scoring the next five points to regain a slim lead until a deep-ball from McDermott put Coe back in front with 2:40 left in the half. Again NWU responded, ending the half with a 6-0 outburst to take a 44-40 lead into the halftime break. 
 
Coe got the first bucket of the second half, as Roth converted a layup to cut the deficit to two points but Shimonitz responded with a layup of his own to keep it at four points. After a pair of Robertson free throws which again cut NWU's lead to just two, the Prairie Wolves got back-to-back baskets including a 3 from Dylan Dirks to push the lead to seven points just three minutes into the second. This time it was the Kohawks who responded, going on a 9-2 run over the next 3:01 to tie the game at 53 with just over 14 minutes to play in the game. 

The squads would battle back-and-forth for nearly the remainder of the game as neither team could take control of the contest but the Prairie Wolves used a 5-0 spurt to regain a two-point lead with 3:10 left to play. After nearly two minutes of scoreless action, Jarad Kruse converted a layup to tie the game at 76 with 1:46 remaining in the game. NWU then scored the final six points of the contest including a game-icing, stepback jumper from Shimonitz with eight seconds left to play. 
 
Up next: Coe returns home after a long road trip on Saturday for a league contest against Wartburg at 4 p.m. 
 
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