Wheaton, Ill. - The Thunder men's basketball team dropped its fifth consecutive contest on Saturday night with a 79-65 loss to Alma College. Alma shot a red-hot 58.3 % from the field including 44.4% from the three-point line to improve to 4-3 on the season and 3-1 against CCIW opponents. Wheaton falls to 3-6 on the season. The Thunder are now off until the Bill Sudeck Holiday Tournament in Cleveland, Ohio, on December 29.
Wheaton shot an impressive 95.2% from the free throw line, making 20 of its 21 free throw attempts, but struggled against the Alma zone defense, shooting 29.3% (17-58) from the field and 31.4% (11-35) from the three-point line. Alma made 28-of-48 field goal attempts and eight-of-18 three-point attempts. The Scots shot 78.9% (15-19) from the charity stripe.
Wheaton scored the first basket of the game on a jumper by
Michael Berg but the Scots used their effect transition game to run off the game's next 10 points to take a 10-2 lead. Berg stopped the run with another bucket but the Scots continued out to an 18-4 lead with 11:22 to play.
Three straight three-pointers by the Thunder brought Wheaton quickly back to a six-point deficit as
Joel Smith bookended a
Ricky Samuelson (PICTURED RIGHT) three to bring Wheaton back to within 25-19. It would be the closest Wheaton would get for the remainder of the game. Five straight points by the Scots pushed the lead back to double digits where it would stay until another Smith trey with two minutes left brough the lead down to seven. A late Alma lay-up pushed the halftime edge to 42-33 in favor of the visitors.
Ricky Samuelson started the second half with a three-pointer to once again bring the lead back to six points but the Scots answered with another 10-0 run to balloon the lead to 16 points. A seven-point run by the Thunder in the middle of the half brough the lead back to 65-55 with 7:46 to play but Wheaton could not get the deficit back to single digits as Alma held off the Thunder from the free throw line.
Joel Smith led the Thunder wiht 22 points to go with six rebounds and six assists. Samuelson scored 14 points and
Michael Berg added 10 points in just 14 minutes of play due to foul trouble.
Murad Dillard led the Thunder with seve rebounds. Jason Beckman led a balanced Alma attack with 12 points to lead four scorers in double-digits. The Scots outscored Wheaton 32-6 in the point on the night and also held a 14-0 edge in fast break points.
Wheaton will next face Otterbein University at 6 PM (EST) on December 29 as part of the Bill Sudeck Holiday Tournament hosted by Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
