PICTURED ABOVE: Aston Francis scored 25 points to lead all players in Saturday's win at Frankin.
Franklin, Ind. – The Wheaton Thunder men's basketball team earned an 83-70 victory at Franklin College (1-3) on Saturday afternoon. Wheaton improves to 3-1 on the season.
Junior
Aston Francis led the Thunder with 25 points today. Forward Kobe Eichelbeger (PICTURED LEFT) registered 17 points with a career-high 13 rebounds.
Ricky Samuelson scored 15 points and
Trevor Gunter tallied eight points with eight rebounds. Samuelson and
Luke Peters each collected six rebounds for the guests, with Peters adding seven assists.
Wheaton shot 46.7% (32-of-59) from the field, including 40% (8-of-20) from three-point range. Franklin tallied a 42.9% (24-of-56) field goal percentage, including 33.3% (6-of-18) behind the three-point arc. Wheaton shot 64.7% (11-of-17) at the free throw line and the Grizzlies had a 57.1% (16-of-28) effort at the charity stripe. The Thunder out-rebounded the hosts 40-28 and each team collected 13 offensive boards.
The opening seven minutes were closely contested. Franklin led 16-12 with 13:20 remaining in the first half. A Thunder basket at the 12-minute mark sparked a 21-4 Wheaton to give the guests a 33-20 lead with 6:00 remaining in the opening half. Samuelson scored nine points in the key surge and Eichelberger registered six points as the duo combined to score 15 of Wheaton's 21 points in the run. The Thunder led 45-34 at halftime. Samuelson (PICTURED RIGHT) scored all 15 points for the game in the first half.
The Thunder maintained the lead for the majority of the second half. The closest the Grizzlies could get to Wheaton was cutting the Thunder lead to 64-58 with 10:17 remaining in the game. The Thunder responded with a 15-5 run to extend the guests' lead to 79-63 with 4:00 left in the game, helping Wheaton to the 83-70 victory. Francis scored 25 of Wheaton's 38 second-half points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field, including a trio of three-pointers.
John Beineke led Franklin with 17 points and three assists. Sam Gutierrez scored 15 points, Jordan Anderson registered 14 points and Danny Goggans tallied 11 points with nine rebounds.
Wheaton returns to action on Wednesday night at 8:00 p.m. when University of Chicago visits King Arena.
