PICTURED ABOVE: Brayden Teuscher scored Wheaton's first nine points and finished with 27 points in Wheaton's 68-63 victory at Trinity (Texas) on Friday night.

San Antonio, Texas - The Thunder men's basketball team overcame a late first half run and a late second half push to earn a 68-63 victory over the Trinity University Tigers on Friday night in the Trinity University National Invitational. Wheaton saw both sides of a 16-2 first half run while taking a 32-30 halftime edge. Despite trailing for the entire second half, Trinity came back to tie the game at 60-60 with two and a half minutes to play, but a big offensive rebound and jumper by Michael Berg pushed Wheaton to the 68-63 victory. Wheaton improves to 7-3 with the win and will face Texas Lutheran University on Saturday afternoon at 4 PM. Trinity falls to 0-9 on the season.

Wheaton shot 46.7% (21-45) from the field including 50% (10-20) on three-point attemps. Wheaton was 69.6% (16-23) from the foul line. Trinity shot 44.6% (25-56) despite shooting just 3-14 (21.4%) from the three-point line and 66.7% (10-15) on free throws. Wheaton won the rebound battle 33-25 with both teams grabbing 10 offensive rebounds.

It took Wheaton a little over three minutes to find the scoreboard on Friday night but despite the early scoring drought Brayden Teuscher kept the Thunder in the game by scoring Wheaton's first nine points, all on three-pointers. Trailing 12-9, a Peter Smith three-pointer tied the game and launched Wheaton on a 21-2 run to give the Thunder a 30-14 lead with six minutes to play in the first half. Wheaton hit four three-pointers during the run including two by Riley Teuscher (PICTURED RIGHT). Trinity answered with a 9-0 run that extended to a 16-2 run that closed the half and cut the Thunder lead to 32-30 at the intermission.

Trinity cut the lead to one with an early second half free throw but a three-pointer by Jonathan Berntsen pushed the lead to four. Trinity was able to pull even at 40-40 but a three-point play by Michael Berg gave Wheaton the lead again and a three-pointer by Caleb DeMoss minutes later pushed the lead back up to four at 46-42 at the midway point of the second half. The Tigers cut the lead back to one again at 52-51, but Riley Teuscher answered with a three-pointer to set the lead to four once again with 5:22 to play. A 5-0 Tiger run tied the game at 60 with 2:23 to play but Michael Berg stepped up for the first of three defining plays with a reverse lay-up at the 2:06 mark to give Wheaton the lead for good.

Berg (PICTURED LEFT) pulled in a big offensive rebound at the one minute mark to earn Wheaton an extra possession and then ended the possession with a baseline jumper to beat the shot clock and give Wheaton a 64-60 lead with 41 seconds to play. Wheaton iced the game with a couple of defensive stops and some timely free throw shooting to win 68-63.

Brayden Teuscher finished with a game-high 27 points. Michael Berg recorded a double-double with 12 points and a game-high 10 rebounds and Caleb DeMoss also scored 12 points. Riley Teuscher finished with nine points and four rebounds. Craig Saltarelli led the Tigers with 15 points.

Wheaton will wrap up its participation in the Trinity Univeristy National Invitational on Saturday when the Thunder face Texas Lutheran University at 4 PM.