BOXSCORE
Chicago, Ill. – The Thunder men's basketball team used a late rally to earn a 59-54 win at North Park on Saturday night. Wheaton improves to 16-5 overall and 6-4 in conference play. North Park is now 11-10 overall and 3-7 in league play.
North Park held a 25-24 lead at halftime of tonight's contest. The Thunder led 37-33 with 12:30 left in the second half, when the Vikings put together a 9-0 run to take a 42-37 lead with 10:00 left in the game. North Park maintained a five-point lead at 48-43 when Jacob Carwell made a basket that began a 14-5 run for the Thunder. The run was capped off by a put-back basket by Thunder senior Phill Denham off of a Wheaton miss at the 1:15 mark of the game to give the guests a 57-53 lead.
North Park made a free throw with 55-seconds left in the game to cut the Thunder lead to 57-54. Wheaton turned the ball over on the next possession and North Park attempted a three-pointer that would have tied the game with seven-seconds left, however, Thunder All-American Kent Raymond blocked the shot. Raymond was fouled after the block and he made two free throws with four-seconds left in regulation to secure the 59-54.
Junior center Andy Wiele (PICTURED LEFT) and Raymond (PICTURED RIGHT) each scored 16 points to lead the Thunder offense. Wiele shot 8-for-10 from the field and he grabbed a team-high nine rebounds. Ben Panner scored 14 points and collected six rebounds. Carwell scored six points and Denham added four.
Nick Williams and Jay Alexander each scored a team-high 12 points to lead North Park. Ed Whitaker scored nine points, with three three-point field goals.
Wheaton shot a 54.5% (24-44) field goal percentage, including 68.2% (15-22) in the second half. The Thunder shot 20% (2-10) from three-point range and 75% (9-12) at the free throw line. North Park shot 39.2% (20-51) from the field, with 34.8% (8-23) from behind the three-point arc and 85.7% (6-7) at the charity stripe. Wheaton out-scored North Park 34-20 in the pain tonight, including a 22-12 edge in the second half behind 12 second-half points from Wiele. The Thunder out-rebounded North Park 28-21 and the Vikings owned a 7-5 edge on the offensive glass.
Wheaton will host league-leading Augustana; ranked seventh in Division III this week, on Wednesday night at 7:30 PM. Wednesday's game is the first of a stretch that will see the Thunder play three of its final four games at home. Wednesday's game will be broadcast on WETN radio and WETN-TV, with streaming audio and video on the internet at www.wetn.org. Live statistics of Wednesday's key CCIW contest can be found online at: http://livestats.internetconsult.com/wheaton/mbball/
