Evanston, Ill. (12/14) – The Wheaton Thunder men's basketball team lost a heartbreaker 41-39 in a defensive struggle at Northwestern University on Thursday night. A Wheaton three-point attempt, that would have given the Thunder a victory, fell off of the rim as time expired. The Thunder defense was superb for most of the game and Wheaton held a commanding 36-19 rebounding advantage, including a 10-4 edge on the offensive glass. Wheaton head coach Bill Harris said of his team's effort, “I am very pleased with how we played defensively. We worked really hard on denying back door cuts.” He added, “I'm very pleased with the way they played throughout this game and obviously, we did a great job on the glass also. We just didn't quite get it done."

The Thunder led 5-4 with 13:50 left in the first half when the Wildcats utilized a 12-0 run to take a 16-5 lead with 8:30 remaining before halftime. The Wheaton defense clamped down on the Wildcats as the Thunder scored the final 13 points of the second half over the final 8:15 of the first half as Wheaton held an 18-16 lead at halftime.

In the second half the two teams battled back-and-forth in a period that saw four ties and nine lead changes. Thunder guard Ben Panner drained a shot to give Wheaton a 32-29 lead with 9:25 left in regulation. Northwestern put together an 8-0 run that was capped by a three-pointer from Kevin Coble to give the hosts a 37-32 lead with 5:45 left in the game. During the final five minutes of the game Wheaton cut the Wildcats' lead to two points on three occasions, the final occurrence came when Kent Raymond scored on a layup with 37-seconds left to cut the hosts' lead to 41-39.

Wheaton fouled Northwestern's William Sterling with 17-seconds left in the game. Sterling missed the first shot attempt of a one-and-one opportunity at the free throw line and Johnnie Standard collected the rebound to give the guests the final possession and the opportunity to win the game that fell just off the rim. Harris said of the game's final shot, “We could have gone for the tie if we got the foul because we were in the bonus. But I just thought, on the road, let's go for the win. I thought we'd get a good look and we did get a pretty good look. The ball just didn't go down."

Raymond, the preseason All-American, was the game's leading scorer with 17 points and seven rebounds in 40 minutes of action. Wheaton senior Michael Fiddler scored seven points, on a perfect 3-for-3 effort from the field, with five rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots. Standard was impressive on the glass with nine rebounds and he added five points. Center Andy Wiele grabbed seven rebounds and scored five points. Freshman guard Ben Panner scored five points and distributed four assists.

Coble led Northwestern with 12 points, five rebounds and three steals. Craig Moore scored 10 points, on 4-for-6 shooting from the field, with five assists. Tim Doyle scored six points, distributed a game-high seven assists and snatched three steals.

Wheaton shot a 35.9% (13-39) field goal percentage, with 16.7% (3-18) from three-point range and 88.9% (8-9) at the free throw line. The stingy Wheaton defense held Northwestern to a 38.3% (18-47) field goal percentage, with 33.3% (4-12) from three-point range and 50% (1-2) at the free throw line. Harris mentioned of his team's effort, “Defense will keep you in the game when you're not shooting the ball and we did not shoot the ball well tonight. Our defense and rebounding kept us in the basketball game."

Tonight's game was played in front of 3,542 fans at Northwestern's Welsh-Ryan Arena, including a very well-represented and loud group of Wheaton supporters. Harris noted after the game, “Our fans were wonderful tonight. I wish they could have seen a win, but we are very appreciative of the support they gave us in this game.”