BELLEVILLE - The Wabash Valley College, down by 41-29 at halftime staged a second-half rally that fell just short against the Southwestern Illinois College Blue Storm Wednesday, 83-78.

The Warriors got to within one points, 79-78, with 31.2 seconds to go as Corey Wickware dropped in a three-pointer from the left wing. But Southwestern's Logan Bouchard hit a pair of free throws to stretch it out to 81-78.

The two teams then traded missed free throws, and with less than six second to go, Chris Hines hit two free throws, after being fouled on a rebound, for the final score.

"We battled back in the second half," noted WVC coach Dan Sparks.

He also said Southwestern shot "a lot more free throws."

WVC hit 12 of 17 free throws, 70.6 percent, while Southwestern hit 30 of 40, 75 percent.

"I'm proud of the way we came back. We had a chance to take the lead. Our press helped in the second half," Sparks said.

"In the first half we played well for 10 minutes, but in the last 10 we did not score. In the second half we attacked well and started rebounding. It was a physical game," he said.

Desmond Holloway led WVC with 19 while Cornelius Chatt added 15. Jared Maners and Chris Duncan added 11 and Andre Miller added 10.

Hines had 24 for Southwestern while Ken Leverette added 16, Mike Malat 15 and Pelczynski 14.

BOX SCORE

Wabash Valley: Maners, 3-1-2--11; Chatt, 3-2-3--15; Lockett, 0-2-1--7; Miller, 2-2-0--10; Holloway, 4-2-5--19; Duncan, 5-0-1--11; Wickware, 1-1-0--5; Suero, 0-0-0--0; Rodriguez, 0-0-0--0; Totals, 21-8-12--78

Southwestern Illinois: Cleveland, 1-0-1--3; Leverette, 5-0-6--16; Malat, 1-2-7--15; Pelczynski, 4-1-3--14; Bouchard, 3-0-3--9; Woolfolk, 1-0-0--2; Nines, 7-0-10--24; Totals, 22-3-30--83

Fouled out: Wabash Valley - Holloway, Wickware