POINT LOOKOUT, Mo. -- No. 3-seed Indiana Wesleyan University captured an easy win in the NAIA Division II Men's Basketball National Championship First Round with an 81-56 blowout of unseeded University of Virginia's College at Wise in Point Lookout, Missouri.

The victory advances the Wildcats to the NAIA Sweet 16 and a showdown with No. 14-seed Eastern Oregon University on Friday night. Eastern Oregon won a hard-fought 74-69 decision against Davenport (Mich.) University in the contest before the Wildcats' game.

Highlighting the First Round victory was another stellar performance on the defensive end of the court.

"The coaches stress all year about our defense," said Indiana Wesleyan senior guard Spencer Harris. "Our defense continually makes our offense and leads to easy baskets."

The Wildcats turned 22 Cavalier turnovers into 19 points, compared to just six points off turnovers for the Cavs.

"We are not as athletic as a lot of teams but we can do a lot more things because we play the hard-nosed defense and do the little things that others will not do," continued Harris. "We have great team chemistry which allows us to trust each other and know that our teammates will be there to help us out."

IWU senior center Zach Coverstone is always one of those teammates that will clean up mistakes in the paint. He blocked a pair of shots and led all players with eight rebounds.

Coverstone and the rest of the team really improved one area against Virginia-Wise (17-13) that has been an issue throughout the year: second chance points for the opposition. On Thursday night, Virginia-Wise grabbed just three offensive boards and did not record a single second chance point.

"We were really hitting in practice and crashing the boards. It's something that has been stressed all year and we were really able to take it to task tonight," Harris added about the improved play on allowing second chance opportunities.

As well as the Wildcats played defense, the offensive end saw contributions across the board as 10 different players added a field goal.

Junior forward Will Hubertz scored a game-high 17 points and was 3-of-7 from 3-point range while Coverstone manned the paint with 14 points. Senior guard Ryan Hetrick contributed 13 points with a trio of 3-pointers and Harris added 11 points.

Indiana Wesleyan (29-5) finished the night shooting 50.0-percent (29 of 58) form the floor and 40.9-percent (9 of 22) from beyond the arc.

The Wildcats will compete in their third NAIA Sweet 16 in four years. In the previous two appearances, IWU has defeated programs from the Cascades Collegiate Conference (CCC), the conference of Eastern Oregon. The Wildcats defeated Oregon Tech in 2007 and Evergreen State (Wash.) College in 2009.

Tip-off for the NAIA Sweet 16 contest on Friday will be the same as Thursday night, 6:45 p.m. ET.

There are three different avenues to follow the Wildcats in the NAIA Sweet 16: live stats gamecast, a radio broadcast on WBAT 1400 AM and on local television on WIWU TV-51 on Brighthouse Cable 23.

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