BOXSCORE

Wheaton, Ill. - The Thunder men's basketball team used a strong effort at both ends of the court in the second half to earn a 56-55 victory against Washington University (Mo.) on Saturday night in King Arena. Wheaton rallied from an 11-point halftime deficit and trailed by as many as 12 points with 14 minutes left in the game. However, the Thunder rallied from that deficit thanks to a 20-6 run that gave the hosts their first lead of the second half at the 5:30 mark of the contest.

A basket by Wheaton's Andrew Jahns with 3:56 left in the game broke a 51-51 tie, giving Wheaton a 53-51 edge. The Bears missed a shot attempt on the ensuing possession and Wheaton gained the ball. On that possession, a missed shot by Wheaton was collected as an offensive rebound by Spencer Schultze and he distributed the ball to Jeremy Pflederer who buried a three-point field goal to stretch Wheaton's lead to 56-51 with 3:10 left in the game. Wheaton's defense held strong in the final three minutes as the only points that the Bears could muster were four free throws, with guests shooting 0-for-4 from the field in that span. Washington's final shot came with two-seconds left in the game and the ball fell out of bounds as time expired to give the Thunder the dramatic victory.

Thunder head coach Mike Schauer noted, “When we went into halftime, I was pretty comfortable that we were going to have a shot. Because what we had failed to do defensively was correctable and statistically we were better than how we had played offensively.” He continued, “Really we just did two things in the second half. First, we re-committed to coach [Nate] Frank's scouting report and when we executed what he had told them to do, we were pretty good. Second, I thought the guys bought into the fact that if we just kept playing hard we could give ourselves a chance.” Schauer concluded, “At halftime I made the team look at me and I told them 'Guys, I think this one is going to go to the wire. I have done this a long time and you get a feeling that games our closer than an 11-point spread' and fortunately we just made enough plays to make that happen.”

Junior All-American Tim McCrary scored 17 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to record his fourth “double-double” of the season. The versatile forward also distributed five assists, with four blocked shots. Pflederer made four three-pointers, en route to 14 points, with three assists. Schultze scored 10 points, with 11 rebounds, collecting his second consecutive “double-double”. Jahns scored eight points, with three assists and freshman Tyler Peters added seven points.

Alex Toth led the Bears with 16 points and nine rebounds and Dylan Richter tallied 15 points, with three assists. Spencer Gay scored 10 points, with 10 rebounds for the guests.

Wheaton shot 40% (22-55) from the floor, with 33.3% (5-15) from behind the three-point arc and 50% (7-14) at the free throw line. The Thunder out-rebounded the Bears 37-29, with a 15-7 edge on the offensive glass that aided the hosts to an 18-4 edge in second-chance points.

Washington posted a 44.2% (23-52) field goal percentage, with 1-of-12 from three-point range and 88.9% (8-9) at the free throw line.