GAME STATS Bloomington, Ill. – The Wheaton College men's basketball team lost to North Central College 59-50 on Friday in the Semifinals of the 2013 CCIW Men's Basketball Tournament. Wheaton, ranked 20th in this week's D3hoops.com Top-25, is now 20-6 on the season. North Central, ranked fifth, is 23-3 on the year and advances to the CCIW Tournament Championship on Saturday at 7:30 PM.
North Central led the Thunder 24-20 at halftime.
Tyler Peters scored 10 of Wheaton's 20 first-half points to lead the Thunder.
North Central led 26-25 with 17:00 left in regulation when the Cardinals put together a 12-3 run to increase its lead to 38-28 with 11:39 remaining in regulation. Wheaton responded with a 10-1 run to trim the Cardinals' lead to 39-38 with 8:18 left in the second half.
Wheaton's strong play continued when Nathan Haynes put the ball into the net to give Wheaton its first lead of the second half at 44-43 with 6:05 remaining in regulation. Wheaton remained in the lead until North Central's Aaron Tiknis made a three-pointer to tie the game at 46-46 with 4:38 left and his teammate Derek Raridon made a trifecta to give the Cardinals a 49-46 lead with 3:50 left in the game. Another Tiknis trey with 2:45 left increased the NCC lead to 52-46.
Brayden Teuscher made a pair of free throws with 1:12 left in regulation to cut the Cardinals' lead to 53-48. A pair of North Central free throws extended the North Central lead to 55-48 and four more Cardinals' charity shots gave NCC a 59-48 lead and the eventual victory.
Tyler Peters led Wheaton with 26 points and he added five rebounds.
Brayden Teuscher scored 10 points and Haynes collected a team-high seven rebounds.
Wheaton put together a 31.9% (15-47) field goal percentage, with 26.7% (4-15) from three-point range and 84.2% (16-19) at the free throw line. North Central shot 40.9% (18-44) from the field, with 54.5% (6-11) from three-point range and 65.4% (17-26) at the charity stripe. North Central out-rebounded the Thunder 36-29, with a 9-7 edge on the offensive glass.
Wheaton is a strong candidate to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III Men's Tournament when bids are announced by the NCAA on Monday at 11:30 AM (CST) on ncaa.com. The Thunder is ranked third in the most recent NCAA-III Midwest Region poll.