PICTURED ABOVE: Aston Francis (LEFT) scored 29 points and Ricky Samuelson (RIGHT) tallied 20 points in Wheaton's victory against Carthage.

Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton men's basketball team earned an 85-78 victory at home against Carthage (11-6, 4-4 CCIW) tonight in CCIW action. Wheaton improves to 8-9 overall and 4-4 in conference action with the win.

Thunder guards Aston Francis and Ricky Samuelson combined to score 49 points in the win. Francis tallied 29 points, making three shots from behind the three-point arc. Samuelson scored 20 points with seven rebounds and snatched two steals. Trevor Gunter (PICTURED LEFT) scored 11 points on four-of-four shooting from the floor and he collected eight rebounds. Kobe Eichelberger had a strong outing with eight points, eight rebounds and two assists. Luke Peters scored eight points, with seven rebounds and three assists. Jay Spencer contributed six points off the Thunder bench.

Samuelson drained a three-pointer a little more than two minutes into the game to break a scoreless tie. Samuelson's trifecta sparked a game-opening 11-4 run for the Thunder over the first 4:10 of the game. Wheaton held an eight-point lead at 34-26 with 3:10 left in the first half when Carthage's Kienan Baltimore made a three-pointer to spark a 7-2 Carthage run to close out the first half. Carthage's run trimmed Wheaton's lead to just a three-point margin at 36-33 for the halftime intermission.

Carthage out-scored the Thunder 8-4 in the first 3:05 of the second half to take its first lead of the game at 41-40 with 16:55 remaining in the second half. The Red Men only led one other time in the game when the guests had a 48-47 advantage with 11:00 left in the game.

The matchup was tied 54-54 with 8:50 left in regulation when Francis made a three-pointer to spark seven-unanswered points for the Thunder that increased Wheaton's lead to 61-54 with 7:05 left in the contest. The Thunder maintained a lead of four points or more for the remainder of the game to secure the win. Francis scored 18 of his game-high 29 points in the second half as Wheaton shot 52.0% (13-for-25) from the field in the final 20 minutes of the game.

Wheaton tallied a 47.4% (27-of-57) field goal percentage, including 31.3% (5-of-16) from three-point range in the game. The Red Men shot 37.5% (24-of-64) from the floor, including 36.7% (11-of-30) behind three-point arc. The Thunder shot 83.9% (26-of-31) at the free throw line and Carthage had a 67.9% (19-of-28) effort at the charity stripe. Wheaton out-rebounded the Red Men 40-36 and the guests had a 13-9 edge on the offensive glass. The Thunder dominated on the inside game tonight, out-scoring Carthage 40-24 in the paint.

Kevin Kozil scored 21 points with three assists to lead Carthage. Kienan Baltimore added 15 points with seven rebounds for the guests. Brad Kruse scored 10 points with six rebounds.

Tonight's contest was the third game of a three-game homestand for the Thunder. Wheaton will return to action next Saturday at 7:00 p.m. in a CCIW matchup at North Central.