GAME STATS PICTURED ABOVE: Peter Smith had a pair of clutch three-pointers and Tyler Peters scored a game-high 20 points in Wheaton's 59-46 win over North Central on Saturday night.
GAME HIGHLIGHT VIDEO
Wheaton, Ill.- The Wheaton men's basketball team used a late second half surge to earn a 59-46 victory over North Central on Saturday night at King Arena. Locked in a defensive slugfest, Wheaton closed the game on a 25-12 run, including a 9-0 run that gave the Thunder the lead for good. With the victory, Wheaton wraps up the first half of the conference schedule in a four-way tie atop the CCIW standings with a conference record of 5-2 and a 12-6 overall record. North Central falls to 9-9 overall and 2-5 in conference play.
The first half was a back-and-forth affair in the early minutes before Wheaton pushed out to a seven-point lead behind a
Joel Smith three-pointer. North Central answered in the late minutes of the second half, closing the half on an 11-4 run to cut Wheaton's halftme advantage to 25-24.
The Cardinals opened the second half by scoring four straight points to take its first lead of the game and push the lead to three. North Central would hold a three-point lead on three occasions including a 34-31 advantage following a lay-up by Vince Kmiec with 13:29 to play. A
Tyler Peters free throw and a tip-in basket by
Brayden Teuscher tied the score at 34 with 10:45 to play before
Peter Smith hit a pair of three-pointers out of the right pocket on consecutive trips down the floor to give Wheaton a 40-34 advantage and send the crowd of 1,563 into a frenzy and force North Central to call a timeout.
From that point, Wheaton pushed the lead into double digits on a dunk by Smith and a pair of free throws by
Caleb DeMoss with 3:55 to play. The Thunder would lead by as many 13 twice including the final total of 59-46.
Wheaton shot 43.2% (16-37) from the field and was 4-of-8 from beyond the arc. Wheaton was 23-for-27 at the charity stripe for an 85.2% clip. North Central shot 39.5% (17-43) from the field, but was just 5-for-17 (29.4%) from the three-point line and the Cardinals were 7-of-11 (63.6%) from the free throw line.
Tyler Peters led all scorers with 20 points.
Brayden Teuscher scored nine points,
Peter Smith scored all eight of his points in the second and
Nate Haynes (PICTURED RIGHT) finished with eight points and grabbed a game-high eight rebounds. Brandon Williams and Landon Gamble led the Cardinals with 12 points apiece. Vince Kmiec added 11 for the guests.
Wheaton will open the second half of the conference schedule on Wednesday night when the Thunder visits R.A. Faganel Hall to take on the Elmhurst Bluejays at 7 PM.
