Box Score

North Manchester, Ind. - The Wheaton College men's basketball team opened its 2010-11 season with a 79-60 loss at Manchester College on Tuesday. Manchester is ranked 25th in the d3hoops.com preseason top-25 poll.

The Thunder falls to 0-1 while the Spartans improve to 1-0 in the first official game for both teams.

The first half was a back-and-forth affair throughout with plenty of momentum swings. Wheaton jumped out to the quick start and built an eight-point lead, 19-11, in the first eight minutes of the game. But then the hosts went on a 19-3 run of its own to recapture 30-22 advantage as the Thunder went into a 1-for-9 shooting funk.

However, the visitors rallied right back. Six points from Andrew Jahns and a three-point play in the final minute by Tyler Peters gave Wheaton a 36-34 lead at the break.

While the Thunder shot 50 percent (12-of-24) in the first half, they shot 25 percent (8-of-32) from the field. Manchester kept up its strong shooting (58 percent) in the second half and slowly pulled away by double digits down the stretch.

Wheaton's cagers had another good run in them, as Jahns sank a three-pointer with 9:32 left in the game to cut the deficit to 55-52. The Spartans answered right back with a 14-2 run over the next four minutes to put the game out of reach.

Jahns led the Thunder offense with 20 points on 6-of-14 shooting from the floor to go with five assists. Tim McCrary and Jeremy Pflederer added 14 points each. McCrary's eight rebounds and three blocks led the way on the boards. Wheaton shot 20-of-56 from the field (35.7 percent), 7 of 17 from three-point range (41.2 percent) and 13-of-16 from the charity stripe (81.3 percent). The team had 11 assists compared to 19 turnovers.

Manchester finished the game shooting 33-of-60 from the field (55 percent), 4-of-14 from three-point range (28.6 percent) and 8-of-12 from the free throw line (66.7 percent). The Spartans won the battle on the boards 35-30 and tallied 15 blocked shots. Mitch Schaefer scored 17 points while center Jason Spindler tallied 14 points, seven rebounds and five blocks.

The Thunder will play a pair of games this weekend in its home-opening Lee Pfund Classic. Covenant College is the first opponent at 8:00 PM on Friday.