GAME STATS PICTURED ABOVE: Spencer Schultze led the Thunder with 20 points against Gustavus Adolphus.
River Falls, Wis. - The Wheaton College men's basketball team defeated Gustavus Adolphus College 68-60 on Friday night in the first round of the 2012 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament. The Thunder advances to the second round of the Tournament on Saturday at 7 PM in the Karges Center on the campus of Wisconsin-River Falls.
Wheaton will face Edgewood College, a 75-67 winner against UW-River Falls in Friday's second game. General admission tickets for Saturday's game will go on sale when the doors open at the Karges Center at 5:30 PM on Saturday. Tickets for Saturday's game are: adults $8, students with ID and senior citizens $3, children two and under free.
Senior forward
Spencer Schultze led the Thunder with 20 points, five rebounds and four blocked shots. Senior guard
Jeremy Pflederer scored 15 points on 5-for-8 shooting from the field, including three three-pointers. All-American
Tim McCrary scored 11 points, with seven rebounds, four assists and five steals. Sophomore
Tyler Peters (PICTURED RIGHT) contributed 10 points, with six rebounds and four assists.
Wheaton head coach
Mike Schauer noted of tonight's game, “I thought this was a great team effort. First of all, Gustavus is wonderful team, had a great year and has one of the elite players in the country in [Seth] Anderson. “Schauer continued, “I thought a key tonight was that our team's depth shone through. Both Tim [McCrary] and Aaron [Garriott] got in foul trouble midway through the first half and we had to massage that first half a little bit. I thought Spencer [Schultze] really stepped up and made a lot of big plays and gave us a place to go with the basketball."
Wheaton jumped out to a 10-4 lead in the first 4:50 of the game. The Gusties responded with 11 unanswered points to take a 15-10 lead with 11:09 left in the first half. Wheaton regained the lead thanks to a substantial 14-4 run that allowed the 'Orange and Blue' to hold a 24-19 lead with 2:25 left in the opening half. Wheaton remained in the lead at halftime, holding a 28-23 edge at the intermission.
Wheaton scored the first six points of the second half to take a 34-23 edge. Gustavus responded with its own 6-0 run to cut Wheaton's lead to 34-29 with 16:20 left in the game. Wheaton again countered with a key scoring run of 11-2 to extend its lead to 45-31 with 13:20 left in the game. The Gusties out-scored Wheaton 16-5 over a span of 5:30 to cut Wheaton's lead to 50-47 with 7:35 left in the game.
Consecutive baskets by Peters increased Wheaton's lead to 54-47 with 7:20 left in regulation. The Gusties trimmed Wheaton's lead to 57-53; however Pflederer (PICTURED LEFT) buried a big three-point basket with 2:50 left in the game to extend Wheaton's lead to 60-53. Following a pair of Gustavus free throws, McCrary cut to the basket for the layup and a 62-55 Wheaton lead with 1:57 remaining in regulation.
Gustavus'
Tyler Gray hit a three-pointer trim Wheaton's lead to 62-58 with 1:15 left in regulation. A McCrary basket was followed by a Gustavus field goal for a 64-60 Wheaton lead with 15-seconds left. A pair of free throws by
Aaron Garriott and another pair by McCrary helped Wheaton secure the 68-60 win.
Seth Anderson led Gustavus Adolphus with 22 points and James Hill added 13 points, with 10 rebounds.
Wheaton shot 48.1% (26-54) from the field, including 56% (14-25) in the second half. The Thunder made 44.4% (4-9) of its three-point attempts and 63.2% (12-19) at the free throw line. Gustavus Adolphus shot 40% (24-60) from the field, with 28.6% (4-14) from three-point range and 66.7% (8-12) at the charity stripe. Each team collected 36 rebounds and the Thunder held a 14-11 edge on the offensive glass.
