Naperville, Ill. – The Wheaton men's basketball team fell at North Central 69-55 on Saturday night at Gregory Arena. Wheaton is now 8-10 on the year, with a 4-5 record in CCIW play and North Central is 11-8 overall with a 5-5 record in league play.

Wheaton scored the game's first five points on a field goal by Luke Peters and a three-pointer for Aston Francis. The largest Thunder lead of the game was a six-point margin at 31-25 with 2:35 remaining in the first half. The Cardinals closed out the half with an 8-3 run as Wheaton led 34-33 at halftime.

The matchup was tied 38-38 with 17:34 remaining in the second half when the Cardinals put together a 15-2 to give the hosts a 53-40 lead with 9:20 remaining in the game. The Thunder trimmed the Cardinals' lead to 57-50 with 4:40 remaining in the game, but the guests could get no closer for the rest of the game.

Francis (PICTURED LEFT) led the Thunder with 13 points tonight. Peters, Trevor Gunter and Ricky Samuelson each scored nine points. Kobe Eichelberger scored six points and Zack Kvam tallied five points. Samuelson and Peterson each grabbed five rebounds to lead the Thunder on the glass.

Wheaton shot 39.2% (20-of-51) from the floor, including 26.3% (5-of-19) behind the three-point arc. The Cardinals had a 51% (26-of-51) field goal percentage in the game, including 44.4% (8-of-18) from three-point range. The Thunder shot 62.5% (10-for-16) at the free throw line and North Central had a 60% (9-of-15) effort at the charity stripe. The Cardinals out-rebounded Wheaton 39-25, including an 8-4 edge on the offensive glass.

Aiden Chang led North Central with a game-high 15 points. Jagger Anderson and Alex Sorenson each contributed

Wheaton will host 16^th-ranked Augustana on Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. in King Arena.