PICTURED ABOVE: Freshman Trae Masten scored 13 points with five rebounds tonight against North Park.
Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton men's basketball team hosted North Park on Wednesday night for a CCIW matchup with the Vikings. North Park topped the Thunder 74-61 in King Arena.
Thunder senior
Jonathan Berntsen (PICTURED LEFT) and freshman
Trae Masten led the hosts with 13 points each tonight. Masten made three field goals from behind the three-point arc and he collected five rebounds. Sophomore
Ricky Samuelson scored 10 points and freshman
Luke Peters contributed eight points.
Senior
Michael Berg grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. Berntsen, Berg,
Zack Kvam and
Troy Morrison each distributed three assists for the Thunder.
Juwan Henry led North Park with a game-high 25 points and he dished out five assists. Jordan Robinson scored 14 points with a game-high 10 rebounds for the guests. Michael Hutchinson scored 11 points with seven rebounds off of the Vikings' bench and T.J. Cobbs scored 10 points.
Wheaton tallied a 39.7% (23-of-58) field goal percentage on the night, including 30.8% (8-of-26) from three-point range. North Park shot 48.4% (30-of-62) from the field, including 20% (3-of-15) behind the three-point arc. The Thunder posted an 87.5% (7-of-8) free throw percentage on the night and North Park shot 91.7% (11-of-12) at the charity stripe. North Park held a 35-33 edge in rebounding and each team collected nine rebounds on the night.
North Park scored the first eight points of the game in a span of 3:30. The Vikings continued to maintain a lead in the first half and held a 27-17 lead with 3:55 remaining in the first half. The Thunder counted with a 10-3 scoring run over the next three minutes to cut the Vikings' lead to 30-27 with 55-seconds left before halftime. The Vikings led the Thunder 32-27 at the halftime intermission.
The Thunder trailed by three points at 34-31 with 18:05 left in the second half when the Vikings surged ahead with 11 unanswered points to increase the guests' lead to 45-31 with 15:50 remaining in regulation. North Park maintained a double-digit lead for most of the remainder of the game on its way to the 74-61 victory.
Wheaton will travel to ninth-ranked Elmhurst on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. for matchup with the Bluejays.
