PICTURED ABOVE: Aston Francis scored a game-high 37 points against the Vikings.

Wheaton, Ill. – Fifth-ranked Augustana edged the Wheaton men's basketball team 86-84 on Wednesday night in tightly contested conference match that went down to the wire. The game saw six lead changes; and was tied 10 times tonight as neither team led by more than six points. Augustana improves to 15-3 overall and 7-2 in CCIW play. The Thunder are now 13-5 overall and 6-3 in league action.

Thunder junior Aston Francis led all players tonight with 37 points, tying his career-high with eight three pointers in the game. Kobe Eichelberger and Ricky Samuelson each scored 14 points for the hosts. Eichelberger (PICTURED LEFT) added five rebounds, four assists and two steals. Luke Peters scored eight points with a game-high eight assists. Peters led the Thunder on the glass with seven rebounds, three steals and two blocked shots.

Augustana led early in the matchup, leading by as many as six points with a 20-14 Vikings' lead with 11:00 remaining in the first half. The Vikings led 34-23 with 6:35 left in the first half when a free throw and three-pointer by Francis sparked a 6-1 Thunder run to give the hosts a 30-25 lead with 5:25 left in the game.

The Thunder led 40-38 when a three-pointer by Francis with 49-seconds left in the first half extended Wheaton's lead to 43-38. Augustana's Crishawn Orange made a pair of free throws with 34-seconds remaining in the half to trim the hosts' lead to 43-40. Samuelson buried a three-pointer with nine-seconds left in the first half to increase the Wheaton lead to 46-40. Augustana's Joe Kellen made a three-pointer with one second left in the half to account for Wheaton's three-point halftime lead at 46-43.

The opening of the second half was tightly contested as the two squads exchanged leads three times in the first 11 minutes with the score tied four times. The match was tied 69-69 with 9:00 remaining in regulation when the Vikings put together a 7-1 run to take a 76-70 lead with 7:00 remaining in the game.

The Vikings led 80-75 when Samuelson (PICTURED RIGHT) made two free throws with 2:35 left to cut the guests' lead to 80-77. The Thunder defense stopped the Vikings' offense on the possession that followed and Peters gathered a defensive rebound and a layup by Francis cut the Augustana lead to 80-79 with 2:06 left in regulation.

Francis made his eighth three-pointer of the night with 1:35 remaining in regulation to give Wheaton an 82-80 lead - Wheaton's first lead since the Thunder held a 65-64 lead with 10:25 remaining in the game. Augustana missed a field goa attempt on its next possession; however, the Vikings turned a Thunder turnover into a layup by Nolan Ebel to tie the game at 82-82 with 1:04 left in regulation.

Francis made one of two free throw attempts with 44-seconds left in regulation to give Wheaton an 83-82 lead. A layup by Ebel gave the Vikings an 84-83 advantage with 29-seconds left. Orange stole the ball from Wheaton and streaked down the court for a layup to give the guests an 86-83 advantage with eight seconds remaining in the game. Francis was fouled with two seconds left, sending the junior to the free throw line. He made the first free throw attempt to cut the Vikings' lead to 86-84. Francis intentionally missed the second attempt in effort to get the rebound, however, the shot was ruled a violation. The Vikings in-bounded the ball and ran out the final second of the clock to secure the 86-84 victory.

Wheaton shot 48.2% (27-of-56) from the field, including 44.4% (12-of-27) from three-point range. The Vikings tallied a 49.3% (34-of-69) field goal percentage, including 47.7% (9-for-19) behind the three-point arc. Wheaton shot 75% (18-of-24) at the free throw line and the Vikings had a 69.2% (9-of-13) effort at the charity stripe. Augustana out-rebounded the Thunder 39-29, including a 19-10 edge on the offensive glass.

Micah Martin led the Vikings with 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field. Ebel scored 17 points and Dyaln Sortillo tallied 16 points. Brett Benning scored 11 points with a game-high 11 rebounds and he distributed six assists.

Wheaton travels to Millikin on Saturday for a 7:00 p.m. tipoff with the Big Blue. PLEASE NOTE: The game time Saturday is 7:00 p.m., not 4:00 p.m., which was listed earlier.

Note Worthy: Francis' eight three-pointers tonight moved him into sixth place on Wheaton's career three-pointers list with 180 as he passed Jason Senik and Ben Panner this evening…Francis surpassed the 1,100-point milestone tonight to surpass Nate Collard for 38^th place on Wheaton's all-time scoring list with 1,101 career points…Samuelson moved past Rob Hamann for 10^th on the program's career three-pointers list with 163.