Holland, Mich. – The Wheaton men's basketball team battled fifth-ranked Hope College (4-1) on Hope's home court on Friday night as the Flying Dutchmen rallied to pick up an 88-83 victory in two overtimes in the Midwest Challenge. Wheaton (3-3) will face Calvin College at Hope's DeVos Fieldhouse on Saturday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. (EST) in the final day of the tournament.
 
The opening minutes of tonight's matchup were tightly contested as the Flying Dutchmen led 8-7 with 16:00 remaining in the first half. A pair of free throws by Wheaton's Murad Dillard with 15:34 left in the half ignited an 11-2 run for the Thunder as the guests took an 18-10 lead with 12:20 remaining in the opening half. Dillard scored seven of Wheaton's 11 points in the run.

Hope battled back over with six unanswered points over the next three minutes to cut Wheaton's lead to 18-16 with 10:05 left in the first half. Wheaton senior Joel Smith drained three-pointers with 9:25 and 7:45 left in the first half to spark a 10-0 run for the Thunder. Ricky Samuelson made a pair of field goals in the Thunder scoring surge as he and Smith accounted for all 10 of Wheaton's points.

Wheaton maintained an advantage for the remainder of the first half as the Thunder led 36-28 at halftime. Samuelson and Dillard each scored nine points in the first half to lead the guests.
Wheaton maintained its lead for the majority of the second half. Samuelson made a three-pointer with 5:58 left in regulation that gave the Thunder a 64-55 lead.

Smith (PICTURED LEFT) made a basket with 41-seconds left in regulation to give the Thunder a 71-66 lead, however, Hope's Mitchell O'Brien responded with a three-pointer on the hosts' next trip down the court to cut the Wheaton lead to 71-69 with 35-seconds remaining. A turnover by the Thunder on Wheaton's next possession led to a layup and free throw for O'Brien as the Flying Dutchmen took a 72-71 lead with 15-seconds remaining in regulation. Samuelson responded on the Wheaton possession that followed with a three-pointer to give the Thunder a 74-72 lead with 10-seconds left in regulation. Hope's Dante Hawkins streaked down the court following Samuelson's trifecta and made a layup to tie the game at 74-74 and send the dramatic contest to overtime.

Hope out-scored Wheaton 4-1 in the first 4:10 of the first overtime as the hosts led 78-75 with 50-seconds left. A layup by Smith with 21-seconds left cut the Hope lead to 78-77 and Hope's Chad Carlson made one of two free throw attempts to give the Flying Dutchmen a 79-77 lead with 16-seconds remaining. Smith collected the rebound when Carlson missed his second attempt at the charity stripe and Jonathan Berntsen was fouled on a layup attempt with six seconds remaining to send the senior to the free throw line. Berntsen made both free throw attempts to tie the game at 79-79 and Hawkins' field goal attempt as time expired fell short to send the matchup to the second overtime.

Wheaton's Luke Peters tallied a layup with 3:50 left in the second overtime to give Wheaton an 81-79 lead. Hope's Ben Gardner converted an old fashioned three-pointer to give hosts an 82-81 lead with 2:55 left and Smith made a basket with 2:00 remaining to give the Thunder an 83-82 advantage. Smith's basket would be the last points of the night for Wheaton as Hope scored the final six points of the game on a pair of layups by Cody Stuive and a basket by Sam Otto to give the Flying Dutchmen the 88-83 victory.

Samuelson tied his career-high tonight with 23 points and he added five rebounds. The sophomore shot 8-of-17 from the field, including 5-for-8 from three-point range. Smith contributed 14 points and five rebounds for Wheaton. Berntsen scored 11 points with four assists and Michael Berg tallied 14 rebounds with nine points. Sophomore Murad Dillard scored nine points and Luke Peters added eight points.  Troy Morrison distributed a game-high six assists and added two steals.

Hope's Ben Gardner led the hosts with 22 points, six rebounds and four assists. Hawkins and Harrison Blackledge each scored 17 points for the Flying Dutchmen and O'Brien added 12 points with six rebounds.
Wheaton shot 46.9% (30-of-64) from the field tonight, including 50% (10-of-20) from three-point range and 65% (13-for-20) at the free throw line. Hope posted a 44.6% (33-for-74) field goal percentage, with 12.5% (3-for-24) behind the three-point arc and 59.4% (19-for-32) at the charity stripe. Hope out-rebounded the Thunder 47-40, including a 16-7 edge on the offensive glass.