PICTURED ABOVEL Brayden Teuscher led the Thunder with a career-high 32 points at Augustana tonight.
Rock Island, Ill. – The Wheaton men's basketball team dropped a hard-fought decision at top-ranked Augustana, 78-74 on Saturday night. Thunder senior
Brayden Teuscher led Wheaton with a game-high 32 points tonight.
Augustana improves to 15-1 on the season and 5-0 in CCIW play. Wheaton is now 8-8 overall and 1-4 in conference action. The Thunder will travel to Millikin on Wednesday night for a 7:00 p.m. tipoff with the Big Blue.
The two teams battled through a tightly contested first half that saw Augustana lead 38-37 at halftime.
Teuscher made a three-pointer with 12:02 left in regulation to break a tie score and give the Thunder a 54-51 lead. Wheaton's lead would be short-lived however as Augustana's Tayvian Johnson made a basket followed by a pair of three-pointers by the Vikings' Dylan Sortillo to give the hosts a 59-54 lead with 7:44 remaining in regulation.
The Vikings led 76-68 with 1:10 remaining in regulation when Teuscher was fouled following a made basket and his old-fashioned three-point play cut the hosts' lead to 75-71. Augustana's Ben Ryan made one of two free throw attempts to give the Vikings a 76-71 lead with 1:07 left in regulation. Wheaton junior
Joel Smith hit a critical three-pointer with 54-seconds left in the second half to cut the Augustana lead to 76-74. The Vikings missed a field goal attempt on their next trip down the court and Teuscher collected the defensive rebound. A missed field goal attempt by Wheaton with 10-seconds remaining in regulation was collected by Augustana's Danielius Jurgutis who was fouled and converted both free throws to account for the 78-74 final score.
Teuscher's career-high 32 points came on 8-of-14 shooting from the field and a 14-for-15 effort at the free throw line.
Peter Smith (PICTURED LEFT) scored 13 points, with six rebounds and three assists.
Joel Smith (PICTURED RIGHT) tallied nine points, with four five rebounds.
Jonathan Berntsen and
Murad Dillard each contributed seven points for the guests tonight.
Wheaton shot 50% (24-for-48) from the field, including 44.4% (8-of-18) behind the three-point arc. Wheaton, the NCAA (all divisions) leader in free throw percentage, shot 90% (18-of-20) at the charity stripe. Augustana tallied a 42.4% (25-of-59) field goal percentage, including 40.9% (9-for-22) from three-point range. The Vikings made 82.6% (19-of-23) of their free throw attempts in the game. Augustana out-rebounded the Thunder 38-24, including an 18-6 edge on the offensive glass for the hosts.
Hunter Hill led Augustana with 22 points. Ryan scored 13 points with seven rebounds and three assists. Nic Hoepfner scored 12 points with eight rebounds to aid the hosts' effort.
