Kyle Mangas defends Drew Zuidema Saturday. Mangas scored 27 points to lead his IWU team past Spring Arbor 77-51 in Marion as the Wildcats claimed the Crossroads League regular-season title (Photo courtesy of Spring Arbor Sports Information Department)

MARON – Kyle Mangas made sure his Indiana Wesleyan basketball team was going to celebrate a conference championship Saturday.

The star freshman from Warsaw poured in a game-high 27 points as the No. 6 Wildcats crushed No. 22 Spring Arbor 77-51 in the Crossroads League regular-season final at IWU.

IWU, with the dominating win, earns the league title outright at 14-4 after Saint Francis was upset by Bethel on Saturday.

Spring Arbor, which beat IWU at home 83-81 back on Jan. 20, actually led 25-21 at one point. The Wildcats then went on an incredible 42-8 run to blow the game open.

Mangas, a former WCHS star, was 11-19 from the field and 4-4 from the free throw line. The 6-3 guard, who leads IWU in scoring and is on pace to break the program’s single-season scoring record, also had four rebounds, three assists and five steals.

Spring Arbor was just 4-19 from 3-point range and had a season-high 21 turnovers.

Spring Arbor top scorer Paul Marandet did not play for the second straight game. The sophomore guard, who also starred at WCHS, had 14 points and 10 assists in the win over IWU four weeks ago. Mangas scored 24 points in that contest.

IWU improves to 23-7 overall, while the Cougars fall to 20-10 overall and finish 8-10 in league play.

IWU will host Taylor in a quarterfinal game of the league tournament Wednesday at 7 p.m. Spring Arbor will play at Saint Francis also at 7 p.m. on Wednesday to open the conference tournament.