Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton men's basketball team (1-0) opened its season with a 74-67 victory at home against Ripon College (0-1) on Saturday night. Wheaton out-scored the Red Hawks 44-28 in the second half to rally for the win tonight.

Thunder All-American Aston Francis led Wheaton with a team-high 26 points and he grabbed 10 rebounds to tally a "double-double". Francis made seven three-pointers and he distributed three assists. Nyameye Adom scored 17 points in his Thunder debut, after sitting out the 2017-18 season due to injury. Adom shot 6-of-10 from the field with four rebounds.

Senior Kobe Eichelberger (PICTURED LEFT) scored 11 points with four Wheaton rebounds. Junior Anajuwon Spencer grabbed eight rebounds and he blocked five shots. Senior guard Luke Peters collected eight rebounds with six assists for the hosts.

Tonight's matchup was tied at 9-9 with 14:20 left in the first half, but the Red Hawks put together a 17-5 run to gain a 26-14 lead with 8:10 left in the opening half. Ripon led by double digits for much of the remainder of the second half. However, Adom's three-pointer in the final minute of the first half cut the Ripon lead to 39-30 – the score at the halftime intermission.

Ripon's Cal Schultz's jumper opened the second half to increase Ripon's lead to 41-30. Spencer's layup with 19:09 left in regulation sparked a string of 12 unanswered points for the Thunder. Francis drained a trio of three-pointers in Wheaton's 12-0 run as Wheaton gained a 44-41 lead with 14:20 left in regulation.

The matchup was tied 55-55 with 7:23 left in the game when Francis (PICTURED RIGHT) drained a three-pointer to five the Thunder lead for good. Francis' trifecta sparked a 10-2 run for the Thunder as Wheaton led 65-57 with 2:58 remaining in the game.

Wheaton shot 37.7% (26-of-69) from the field, including 43.5% (10-for-23) from three-point range. The Red Hawks had a 37.5% (27-of-72) field goal percentage, including 35% (7-of-20) behind the three-point arc. The hosts shot 70.6% (12-of-17) at the free throw line and Ripon had a 60% (6-for-10) effort at the charity stripe. Each team collected 46 rebounds, including 14 offensive boards apiece.

Trent Jones led Ripon with 27 points and 10 rebounds. Schultz scored 11 points with six rebounds. Owen Theune had 10 points off the Ripon bench.

Wheaton returns to action Friday at 8:00 p.m. when the Thunder entertains Coe College in opening night of the 2018 Lee Pfund Classic.