Wheaton, Ill. (2/10) - The Wheaton Thunder men's basketball team was a 93-84 victor at Illinois Wesleyan on Saturday night. With the win, Wheaton improves to 15-7 overall and 7-4 in the CCIW. Illinois Wesleyan is now 10-12 overall and 3-8 in league play.

Wheaton All-American Kent Raymond scored a career-high 44 points on the night. The Thunder guard shot 9-for-13 from the field, including 6-for-9 from three-point range. Raymond was a perfect 20-for-20 at the free throw line to set a new school record for free throws in a single game. The previous record of 16 was jointly held by Raymond (against Elmhurst on Jan. 20, 2007) and Norm Pott (Jan. 16, 1954 against Millikin).

Raymond's effort is the most points by a Wheaton player in head coach Bill Harris' 16 seasons at the school and the most by a member of the Wheaton program since Tom Dykstra scored 48 points against Carthage on February 7, 1970. The sharpshooter's effort is tied for the fifth-highest single-game scoring performance in school history. Raymond also broke the scoring record at Illinois Wesleyan's Shirk Center, a building that opened in the 1994-95 season. The previous scoring record in the building was 42 points by Korey Coon in 2000 and the previous high by an opponent on the Titans' homecourt was the 37 points scored by Beloit's Josh Hinz in 2003. The All-American noted after the game, “The thing that is best about this is that it is another CCIW victory. We knew we would get Illinois Wesleyan's best effort and it feels good to come away with a win.” Raymond concluded, “I had a good day. The ball felt good in my hands.”

Wheaton totaled five players with double-digit point totals on the night. Sophomore Andy Wiele scored 15 points, with a game-high seven rebounds. Freshman Ben Panner, senior Johnnie Standard and junior John Mohan each scored 10 points. Panner distributed a game-high five assists for the guests.
Darius Gant shot 11-for-12 from the field to lead the Titans with 27 points. Andrew Gilmore scored 20 points, on 8-for-15 shooting from the field. Brothers Andrew and Zach Freeman each scored 14 points for the Titans.

Wheaton shot 58.1% (25-43) from the field, with 50% (10-20) from three-point range and a 91.7% (33-35) effort at the free throw line. Illinois Wesleyan shot a 60.4% (32-53) field goal percentage, with 33.3% (4-12) from three-point range and 69.6% (16-23) at the free throw line. The Thunder out-rebounded Illinois Wesleyan 24-20, however, the Titans held a 7-4 edge on the offensive glass.

Wheaton led 44-40 at halftime of tonight's contest. The guests led 50-48 with 17:10 remaining in regulation when the Thunder put together a 13-6 run to increase its lead to 63-54 with 13:00 remaining. Wheaton built an 11-point advantage at 76-65 with 8:00 left in the game. However, the Titans out-scored Wheaton 13-3 over a span of 4:10 to cut the guests' lead to 79-78 with 3:50 left in the game. Raymond scored five consecutive points to give Wheaton a six-point lead at 84-78 with 2:40 left in regulation as the Thunder pulled away for the victory.