Kansas Wesleyan rallied from a 5-point deficit in the final five minutes and held on for a 71-70 win over Wayland Baptist on Saturday at the Hutcherson Center.

The Coyotes trailed 65-60 with 5:55 left in the game when a 9-0 run capped by free throws by Evens Appolon gave Wesleyan a 69-65 lead with 2:52 left.

Wesleyan held Wayland without a basket for over five minutes as the Pioneers did not score until 16 seconds left on a bucket by Quenton Coleman made it 69-67. Izaiah Hale scored for the Coyotes with eight seconds left, and the Pioneers drew within a point with 3.3 seconds left on a 3-pointer by Coleman to make it 71-70.

Alex Littlejohn was fouled and missed the front end of a single bonus chance, and Wayland’s half court heave was off as the Coyotes held on for the win.

The game was a back and forth battle throughout. Wayland had an early 8-4 lead on the Coyotes, but Wesleyan came back and tied it up at 10 with 16:30 left in the first half on Tucker Bowman’s 3-pointer.

Wesleyan was down 13-10 when Hale scored to spark a 10-0 run for the Coyotes to make it 20-13 KWU with 13:24 left in the first.

Wayland cut the difference to two points, the last time at 5:08 to go before back-to-back triples by Easton Hunter made it 37-29 Coyotes with 3:52 left. Wayland cut the lead to three with a minute left and used free throws with a second left in the half to again cut the lead to three at the half 43-40.

The Pioneers scored the first 11 points of the second half, taking a 51-43 lead with 16:25 left in the game.

Littlejohn’s bucket with 15:39 left broke the Wayland run, and sparked an 11-0 Coyote run capped by Bowman’s free throws with 12:57 left that gave KWU a 54-51 lead.

Wayland tied it at 58 with 8:15 left and then took a 61-60 lead with 7:18 left. The Pioneers built their lead out to 65-60 when Wesleyan made its last run of the game.

Easton Hunter led the Coyotes with 14 points, while Hale and Bowman had 12 each and Littlejohn added 10 as KWU shot 50 percent from the field (28 of 56), and were 50 percent from 3-point range (9 of 18). Littlejohn had 10 rebounds for his first double-double in the last three games.

KWU steps back into KCAC play on Wednesday, hosting Sterling College Warriors at 8 p.m. at Mabee Arena.