Wheaton, Ill. (1/20) - The Wheaton men's basketball team handed Elmhurst College its first loss in 14 games on Saturday as the Thunder topped the Bluejays 77-74 in Wheaton's King Arena. Wheaton snapped the 14-game winning streak of an Elmhurst squad (14-2/4-1 CCIW) that entered the game ranked ninth in the most recent D3Hoops.com Top 25 Poll.

Wheaton improves to 11-5 overall and 3-2 in the CCIW. Thunder head coach Bill Harris noted after the game, “I thought we played very well.” He added, “I thought we executed very well on both ends for the majority of the game; especially on offense, they had some problems guarding us.” 

Elmhurst's largest and last lead of the game was a four-point advantage at 27-23 with 4:45 left in the first half. Wheaton closed out the first half with a 9-2 run to hold a 32-29 lead at halftime.

Wheaton kept offensive pressure on the Bluejays for much of the second half as the hosts built up a 61-48 lead with 3:50 left in regulation. Elmhurst charged at the Thunder with a 14-4 scoring run over a span of 1:50 to cut the Wheaton lead to 65-62 with 2:00 left in the game. Wheaton built its lead to 72-66 with 40-seconds left in regulation.

Elmhurst's Brian Lee scored a basket with 33-seconds left in the game to cut Wheaton's lead to 72-68. Elmhurst stole the ball on the ensuing in-bounds pass and Lee made another basket to cut the hosts' advantage to 72-70 with 24-seconds left. Wheaton forward Phill Denham made the second of two free throw attempts to increase the Wheaton lead to 73-70 with 22-seconds left in the game. Elmhurst's Ryan Burks made it a one-point game with a basket for a 73-72 Wheaton lead with 11-seconds left. Elmhurst fouled Wheaton All-American Kent Raymond with seven seconds left in regulation and he made both free throws to extend his team's lead to 77-74. A three-point attempt by Elmhurst with two-seconds left fell short and Wheaton collected the rebound to secure the win.

Raymond led the Thunder with 23 points, five rebounds and three assists. Sophomore center Andy Wiele scored 15 points on 5-for-7 shooting from the field, with five rebounds. Denham had an impressive effort off the Thunder bench as he scored a career-high 11 points on 4-for-6 shooting from the field. Junior John Mohan added nine points and Michael Fiddler scored six points with nine rebounds and three blocked shots.

Burks led Elmhurst with 25 points. Brent Ruch added 16 points on 7-for-10 shooting from the field and nine rebounds. Nick Michael scored 10 points and Jared Hintzsche grabbed nine rebounds.

Wheaton shot 43.5% (20-46) from the field, with 25% (3-12) from three-point range and 75.6% (34-45) at the free throw line. Elmhurst shot 41% (25-61) from the field, with 16.7% (3-18) from behind the three-point arc and 70% (21-30) from the charity stripe. Elmhurst out-rebounded Wheaton 43-33, with a 20-11 edge on the offensive glass as the Bluejays out-scored Wheaton 23-13 in second-chance points.