Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton Thunder men's basketball team opened its season on Friday night with an 81-78 victory against Franklin College in the first round of the 2006 Lee Pfund Classic. With the win, Wheaton advances to Saturday night's championship game at 8 PM, where it will face Whitworth College, a 95-67 victor against Eastern University in tonight's other opening round game. Saturday's championship game will be broadcast on WETN-TV, channel 72 on Wheaton-area cable outlets and on the internet at www.wetn.org.

In tonight's Thunder victory, the two team's battled back and forth in a game that saw 19 ties, with eight lead changes Wheaton led 77-72 with 1:57 remaining in regulation. However, the Grizzlies went on a 6-1 run that was sparked by a three-pointer from Jace Redman to tie the game at 78-78 with 33-seconds left. Wheaton sophomore Andy Wiele hit the second of two free throw attempts to give Wheaton a 79-78 lead. With nine-tenths of a second left in regulation, Wheaton's Johnnie Standard stole the ball from the Grizzlies and was fouled. Standard made both of his to free throw attempts to secure the 81-78 win.

All-American guard Kent Raymond  led the Thunder with 27 points, six rebounds and five assists. Standard contributed 20 points on six-for-9 shooting from the field. Freshman Ben Panner scored 12 points and senior Michael Fiddler added 10 points.

Redman led Franklin with 16 points, while John Neill scored 15 points and Jared Catron contributed 12 points.