BOXSCORE

Bloomington, Ill. – The 10th-ranked Thunder men's basketball team utilized an impressive second half performance to earn an 86-60 victory at Illinois Wesleyan (13-10/5-7 CCIW) on Saturday night. With the victory, the Thunder remains alone atop the CCIW standings, as Wheaton looks to earn its first CCIW Championship since the 1998-99 season. Wheaton is now 9-3 in CCIW play and 20-3 overall on the year. Wheaton will travel to Carthage on Wednesday night for a 7:30 PM tipoff against the Red Men.

Tonight's win gives Thunder head coach Bill Harris his school record seventh 20-win season in 18 years at the helm of the Wheaton program. The Thunder has concluded its regular season series with Illinois Wesleyan, by sweeping the Titans for the second time in three seasons. This is the first season since 1968-69 that Wheaton has earned regular season series sweeps in conference play against both Illinois Welseyan and Augustana. 

Wheaton held a 37-29 lead at halftime and the Thunder scored the first 11 points of the second half to extend their lead to 48-29 with 16:45 remaining in regulation. With the strong open to the second half Wheaton remained in control for the remainder of the game, leading by as much as 30 points at 75-45 with 7:05 remaining in the game.

“We came out in the second half and took them out of what they wanted to do, our defense did a great job.” noted Harris after the game. He added, “We did a great job offensively, and our kids did a great job of moving, back-cutting and coming off of screens.” He concluded, noting of his team's one-game lead, “We have told the kids since October 15, that we want to take it one game at a time. We have done a good job taking it one game at a time and I want us to do that for one more week, and then we can worry about the conference tournament.”

All-American Kent Raymond led the Thunder with 28 points as he sank five three-pointers in the game. Senior center Andy Wiele scored 17 points, on 8-for-11 shooting from the field, with six rebounds and three assists. Freshman Tim McCrary scored 14 points and Jake Carwell contributed seven points, with five assists and four steals.

Center Doug Sexauer led Illinois Wesleyan with 12 points and Sean Johnson contributed 10 points. Brett Chamernik scored 10 points, with seven rbounds.

Wheaton recorded a 64.8% (35-54) field goal percentage, with 46.2% (6-13) from three-point range and 66.7% (10-15) at the free throw line. Illinois Wesleyan shot 46.9% (23-49) from the field, with 40% (4-10) from behind the three-point arc and a 62.5% (10-16) free throw percentage. The Titans held a 28-24 rebounding advantage, with an 11-5 edge on the offensive glass. Illinois Wesleyan committed 19 turnovers as the Thunder out-scored the Titans 20-6 in points off of turnovers