PICTURED ABOVE: Brayden Teuscher scored a game-high 24 points and Peter Smith scored 13 points with nine rebounds in Wheaton's 79-70 overtime loss at Illinois Wesleyan on Wednesday night.
Bloomington, Ill. - A second half rally wasn't enough for the Thunder men's basketball team on Wednesday night as Wheaton fell 79-70 in overtime at Illinois Wesleyan. Wheaton rallied from a seven-point deficit in the second half and led by three points with two minutes to play in regulation, however, IWU froced its own rally to send the game to overtime. The Titans out-scored Wheaton in the overtime period 15-6 to improve to 14-5 overall and 6-2 in CCIW play. Wheaton falls to 9-10 overal and 2-6 in conference action. Wheaton will play at North Central at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday night.
The Thunder shot 40% (24-for-60) from the field, including 20.8% (5-of-24) from three-point range. Wheaton shot 85% (17-for-20) from the free throw line. The Titans shot 45.8% (27-of-59) from the field and made just 23.8% (5-for-21) of its three-point attempts. The hosts shot 90.9% (20-for-22) from the charity stripe. Illinois Wesleyan out-rebounded Wheaton 40-28, including a 9-6 edge on the offensive glass.
The first six minutes did nothing to separate the teams as Wheaton jumped out to a 5-0 lead but the Titans recovered to tie the game at 8-8. A subsequent 11-4 run for the hosts opened up a seven point IWU lead at 19-12 with 11:43 to play in the half. The Thunder responded by holding Illinois Wesleyan scoreless for three and a half minutes and scoring 10 straight points to take a 22-19 lead. An 8-0 Titan run put the hosts' lead back at six points, but a lay-up at the buzzer by
Caleb DeMoss cut the halftime deficit to 38-33.
Illinois Wesleyan pushed its lead to seven on a pair of occasions over the first five minutes of the second half, but eight straight points from
Peter Smith single-handedly pushed Wheaton back into the lead at 45-44 and a
Joel Smith jumper made it a three-point Thunder lead with 12:31 to play.
Five straight points from the Titans gave the hosts a four-point lead, but the score would swing no further in either direction for the final 10:29 of regulation. Wheaton tied the game on three occasions before two
Caleb DeMoss (PICTURED RIGHT) free throws gave Wheaton a 57-55 lead with 5:46 to play. A three-pointer and a jumper by Teuscher swung Wheaton back into a 64-61 lead with 2:14 to play but three Titan free throws down the stretch evened the score at 64 with just over a minute to play. Both teams missed shots in the final 30 seconds to send the game to overtime.
The Titans scored the first five points of the extra period before
Peter Smith's three-pointer brought it back to a two-point game in favor of the hosts. Four more unanswered IWU points pushed the lead to six and the Titans iced the game from the free throw line, hitting all six free throw attempts in overtime to win 79-70.
Brayden Teuscher led the Thunder with a game-high 24 points to go with eight rebounds.
Peter Smith scored 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds.
Michael Berg and Caleb DeMosS each scored 11 points. Dylan Overstreet led the Titans with 18 points and Alec Bausch grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.
