GAME STATS PICTURED ABOVE: Tyler Peters scored a team-high 21 points and Brayden Teuscher contributed 16 points for Wheaton on Friday night.
HIGHLIGHT VIDEO
Holland, Mich. – The Wheaton men's basketball team opened the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament on Friday with a 64-57 victory against Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (22-6). Wheaton advances to the second round of the tournament on Saturday night with a 7 p.m. (EST) tipoff against Penn State-Behrend.The Lions defeated host Hope College 70-66 in overtime in the second game tonight.
Wheaton heads into the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament with a 20-8 overall record. This year's 20-win season marks the third consecutive campaign the Thunder have achieved the 20-win milestone. This is only second time in school history that Wheaton has put together three straight 20-win seasons. The other occurance was in a string of four-consecutive 20-win seasons from the 1955-56 season until 1958-59.
Thunder head coach
Mike Schauer noted, "I am really pleased with our guys. Rose-Hulman is a difficult team to play. They take 25 to 30 seconds on every possession and they make it difficult to play. I thought our guys handled that well and I thought we defended well tonight."
Thunder senior
Tyler Peters led the Thunder with 21 points on 9-of-15 shooting. He also contributed four assists and two steals. Peters now has 1,510 career points as his effort tonight moved him into 12th place on Wheaton's all-time scoring list and he is now one of only 12 players in school history to surpass 1,500 career points.
Brayden Teuscher scored 16 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field. Teuscher scored 10 of his 16 points in the second half. Junior
Peter Smith (PICTURED LEFT) scored 10 points, with five rebounds.
Nate Haynes (PICTURED RIGHT) tallied nine points, with 11 rebounds and three-blocked shots.
Schauer mentioned, "I thought Tyler [Peters] was special tonight." He added, "I thought
Peter Smith was important tonight. We got into foul trouble pretty quickly with Tyler and Brayden and Peter was able to spend most of the game guarding Julian Strickland, which is not what we came into the game planning to do, but Peter's versatility allowed us to do that."
Wheaton shot 51.9% (28-54) from the field, with 22.2% (2-9) behind the three-point arc and 30% (6-20) at the free throw line. The Fightin' Engineers posted a 40.4% (19-47) field goal percentage, including 14.3% (1-7) from three-point range and 81.8% (18-22) at the charity stripe. Rose-Hulman out-rebounded the Thunder 34-29 with a 9-8 edge on the offensive glass.
Julian Strickland led Rose-Hulman with 29 points and he also collected nine rebounds. Jimmy Miller scored eight points, with nine rebounds for the Fightin' Engineers.
The Thunder never trailed in the game. The Wheaton led 8-6 with 13:10 remaining in the first half and a 16-8 Wheaton scoring edge increased the Thunder lead to 24-14 with 4:33 lead in the first half. A basket by
Peter Smith as time expired accounted for a 34-20 lead at halftime.
Strickland registered the first field goal of the second half to cut Wheaton's lead to 34-22. Teuscher then made five consecutive field goals to increase Wheaton's lead to 42-22 with 15:25 remaining in game. Rose-Hulman responded to trim the Wheaton lead to eight points at 50-42 with 8:20 remaining in regulation. A Rose-Hulman three-pointer with 51-seconds remaining cut the Thunder lead to 62-55 with 43-.5-seconds. The closest that RHIT could get was a seven-point deficit, including the 64-57 final score.
