GAME STATS PICTURED ABOVE: Joel Smith scored a career-high 24 points at North Central on Saturday night.
Naperville, Ill. – The Wheaton men's basketball team dropped a 63-62 decision at North Central on Saturday night. The Cardinals scored the game-winning basket with 13-seconds remaining in regulation.
The first half was tightly contested as the Cardinals led 35-30 at halftime. The two squads exchanged the lead on seven occasions in the first half and the game was tied six times.
North Central gradually increased its lead in the second half as the Cardinals led by nine points at 48-39 with 13:25 left in regulation. Wheaton's
Joel Smith made a basket to cut the Cardinals' lead to 48-41 and
Caleb DeMoss made a three-pointer with 11:52 remaining in the game to trim the hosts' advantage to 48-44. Three-pointers by Wheaton freshmen
Murad Dillard and
Ricky Samuelson gave the Thunder a 52-51 lead with 8:09 remaining in regulation.
North Central regained the lead with a 59-54 advantage, but Wheaton senior
Brayden Teuscher made a three-pointer and added a field goal to tie the game at 59-59 with 2:44 remaining in the second half. Following a missed North Central three-pointer
Joel Smith made a Thunder three-pointer to give the guests a 62-59 lead with 2:05 left in regulation.
North Central's Kevin Honn slashed to the basket with 22-seconds remaining to cut the Wheaton lead to one point at 62-61. Honn missed a free throw attempt that followed his basket and Wheaton gathered the rebounded and was fouled. The Thunder missed the first free throw attempt of one-and-one as the Cardinals gathered the rebound. North Central's Erwin Henry scored with 13-seconds remaining to give NCC the lead at 63-62. A three-point attempt by Wheaton at the conclusion of regulation missed.
Joel Smith scored a career-high 24 points to lead the Thunder. Smith shot 8-for-11 from the field and made a trio of three-pointers. He also collected five rebounds with two assists. Teuscher (PICTURED LEFT) scored 14 points, with five assists. DeMoss added seven points, while
Michael Berg and Dillard each scored six points. Berg grabbed a game-high seven rebounds.
Wheaton recorded a 46.7% (21-for-45) field goal percentage, including 32% (8-for-25) from three-point range and the Thunder shot 75% (12-of-16) at the free throw line. North Central shot 49% (25-of-51) from the field, with 22.2% (2-for-9) from three-point range and 57.9% (11-of-19) at the charity stripe. North Central held a 30-24 advantage in rebounding, including an 11-4 edge on the offensive glass.
Henry led the Cardinals with 17 points off of the NCC bench. Jack Burchett, Charles Rosenberg and Evan Fendley each scored eight points for the hosts.
Wheaton will travel to North Park on Wednesday night for a 7:00 p.m. tipoff with the Vikings.
