Kenosha, Wis. – The Thunder men's basketball team dropped a 76-51 decision against Carthage College on Saturday night at Carthage's Tarble Arena. Wheaton (5-19, 1-12 CCIW) will host Augustana next Saturday in the regular season finale in King Arena, a 7:00 p.m. tipoff against the Vikings.

Freshmen Troy Morrison and Trae Masten led the Thunder with seven points each. Senior Michael Berg scored six points with five rebounds. Masten and Christian Simpson each grabbed four rebounds for the guests. Joel Smith, Jonathan Berntsen and Mark Champion each scored five points for the Thunder.

Sean Valentine led Carthage with 18 points. Brad Kruse scored eight points with a game-high 12 rebounds. Kiston Lee scored 11 points with eight rebounds for the Red Men.

Wheaton shot 30.4% (17-of-56) from the field, including 13.6% (3-for-22) from three-point range. Carthage posted a 47.3% (26-of-55) field goal percentage including a 37.5% (3-for-8) effort behind the three-point arc. The Thunder shot 66.7% (14-of-21) at the free throw line and Carthage had a 68% (17-of-25) effort at the charity stripe. Each team collected 37 rebounds tonight with the Thunder holding a 10-7 edge on the offensive glass.
 
Carthage took a 25-6 lead in the first 10 minutes of tonight's matchup. Wheaton responded with 15 unanswered points to cut the Red Men lead to 25-21 with 3:40 left in the first half. Carthage countered by out-scoring Wheaton 10-1 in the final three minutes of the opening half to give the hosts a 35-22 lead at halftime.

Carthage out-scored Wheaton 9-2 in the first 4:05 of the second half to build up a 46-24 lead with 15:55 left in regulation and hosts maintained a sizeable lead for the remainder of the matchup.