BOXSCORE
Wheaton, Ill. – The Thunder men's basketball team posted an impressive overall performance on Wednesday night with a 73-60 win against Augustana in King Arena. Tonight's victory was Wheaton's fifth win out of its last six contests as the squad improves to 17-5 overall. Wheaton is now 7-4 in the CCIW, one game behind league co-leaders Augustana and Illinois Wesleyan. Wheaton will host Illinois Wesleyan on Saturday at 7:30 PM in King Arena. Augustana, ranked eighth in this week's D3Hoops.com Top-25 poll, is now 17-5 overall and 8-3 in league play.
Wheaton shot a sparkling 60.9% (28-46) from the field in tonight's game, including a 68.4% (13-19) field goal percentage in the second half. The hosts also shot well from behind the three-point arc with a 57.1% (8-14) three-point field goal percentage and 81.8% (9-11) from the free throw line.
Wheaton head coach Bill Harris noted of tonight's win, “This is a big win for us. The veteran Thunder mentor added, "I thought we got great contributions from everybody tonight. Plus, I thought our defense was exceptional."
Thunder All-American Kent Raymond scored a game-high 24 points, with five assists and two steals. Sophomore Ben Panner (PICTURED RIGHT) contributed 19 points, shooting 8-for-12 from the field, including 3-for-5 from three-point range. Junior center Andy Wiele (PICTURED LEFT) scored 13 points, in 6-for-8 shooting from the floor, with eight rebounds and three assists. Freshman guard Andrew Jahns scored 10 points, with a 3-for-3 effort from three-point range. He also collected seven rebounds with four assists. Forward Jacob Carwell scored six points, on 3-for-3 shooting from the floor.
Brett Wessels led Augustana with a team-high 14 points. Chandlor Collins and Alex Washington each scored 10 points for the guests and Matt Pelton added seven points. Chandlor Collins and Justin Bertrand each collected a team-high six rebounds.
The Vikings shot 47.2% (25-53) from the field, with 33.3% (3-9) from three-point range and 70% (7-10) at the free throw line. Wheaton out-rebounded the guests 27-22, however, Augustana held a 7-5 edge on the offensive glass.
Augustana led the Thunder 18-17 with 11:00 left in the first half, when a Raymond layup sparked a 12-2 Thunder run to give the hosts a 29-20 lead with 4:30 left in the first half. Wheaton held a 37-26 advantage at halftime. The Thunder maintained a double-digit lead for the entire second half, leading by as many as 21 points with a 53-32 lead with 13:30 left in regulation.
Saturday's Thunder game versus Illinois Wesleyan will be broadcast on WETN radio and WETN-TV, with streaming audio and video at www.wetn.org. Saturday's game will be preceded by an alumni game featuring Wheaton alumni versus, Illinois Wesleyan alumni at 5 PM. Some of the former Wheaton standouts scheduled to return are: Joel Kolmodin, Nate Frank, Jon Nielsen, Steve Thonn, Paul Sweatman, Jonathan Steven, Jordan Kemper, Brian Adams, Rob Hamann, Charles Ridley, Kevin Bishop, and Tom Thornton. The Wheaton alumni team will be coached by former Wheaton players: Tom Dykstra, Wally Olson and Steve Clum.(Please note: the roster is tentative and subject to change).
