BOXSCORE
Rock Island, Ill. - The Thunder men's basketball team lost its second-straight road contest on Wednesday night with a 66-61 defeat at Augustana. Tonight's game was a back-and-forth affair that saw nine lead changes and was tied on four occasions. Augustana (11-3/2-1 CCIW) entered tonight's game ranked ninth in this week's D3Hoops.com Top-25 poll, Wheaton (11-3/1-2 CCIW) is ranked 18th in the same poll.
The Thunder led 30-27 at halftime of tonight's contest. Wheaton's final lead of the game came in a 53-52 Thunder advantage with 4:00 left in regulation. The Vikings put together a 10-2 run to jump out out to a 62-55 lead with 56-seconds left in regulation. Three-pointers by Wheaton guards Kent Raymond and Ben Panner cut the Vikings' advantage to three points as Augustana led 64-61 with 22-seconds left, however, the guests could get no closer.
Raymond (PICTURED) led all scorers with 24 points, draining three baskets from behind the three-point arc. The All-American also distributed four assists. Panner scored 14 points and Andy Wiele added 12 points, with nine rebounds. Senior Phill Denham scored seven points and collected six rebounds, while Jacob Carwell grabbed six rebounds, including four offensive boards.
Dain Swetella scored 14 points to lead Augustana. Matt Pelton scored 11 points and Alex Washington added 10 points. Chandlor Collins grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds, with six points.
Wheaton shot 40.7% (22-54) from the field, with 30% (6-20) from three-point range and 73.3% (11-15) at the free throw line. Augustana posted a 45.3% (24-53) field goal percentage, with 44.4% (4-9) from three-point range and a 66.7% (14-21) at the charity stripe. Augustana out-rebounded the Thunder 37-33, with an 11-10 edge on the offensive glass.
Wheaton will return to action on Saturday night in a 7:30 PM tipoff against North Park in King Arena. Saturday's game will be broadcast on WETN-TV, channel-72 on Wheaton-area cable outlets and on WETN-radio, 88.1 FM in the Wheaton area. The game will also have live streaming video and audio on the internet at www.wetn.org. Live statistics of Saturday's game, and all Wheaton home basketball games, can be found on the internet at http://livestats.internetconsult.com/wheaton/mbball/.
