PICTURED ABOVE: Aston Francis scored 42 points in Wheaton's 89-87 victory at LeTourneau on Saturday night.

Longview, Texas - Playing away from King Arena for the first time this season, the Thunder men's basketball team rallied from a halftime deficit to secure an 89-87 victory at LeTourneau University. The victory pushes Wheaton's record to 5-0 on the young season while the Yellow Jackets fall to 3-3 overall. Wheaton will return home for a final nonconference tune-up on Thursday, November 29 against University of Chicago, before starting CCIW play.

Wheaton shot 46% (29-63) from the field including a 40% (6-15) clip from the three-point line while holding LeTourneau to 36.7% (29-79) from the field and 31.7% (13-41) beyond the arc. Both teams shot well at the free throw line with Wheaton shooting 80.6% (25-31) and LeTourneau shooting 88.9% (16-18). The Yellow Jackets won rebounding battle 50-30 with a 20-8 edge in offensive rebounds.

The hosts raced out to a 10-5 lead in the opening before Wheaton countered with a 20-8 run to take its largest lead of the first half at 25-18 near the midway point of the half. Wheaton led by six with 8:41 to play before LeTourneau went on a 9-2 run to retake the lead just under four minutes later. An 8-0 Yellow Jacket run in the closing minutes of the half gave LeTourneau its largest lead of the game at 46-39 with a minute to play, but a pair of free throws by Anajuwon Spencer cut the lead down to 46-41 at the halftime break.

Trailing by four just over three minutes into the half, Wheaton took control of the game using an 11-0 run that spanned over four minutes, capped by a Kobe Eichelberger lay-up at the 12:44 mark. Wheaton's lead would remain above five through the following minutes and a five-point run by Aston Francis gave Wheaton its largest lead of the game at 72-64 with 6:23 to play on his fourth three-pointer of the night.

LeTourneau answered with seven straight points, cutting the lead down to one at 72-71 with 4:58 to play, starting a sequence that saw the lead seesaw between one and three points before four straight free throws by Francis finally pushed the lead back to five at 82-77 with 2:13 to play. Nate West kept the conclusion interested with a pair of long range three-pointers including one at the buzzer that pulled the final tally to 89-87.

Aston Francis led all scorers with 42 points and a team-high eight rebounds including five three-pointers. His fourth three-pointer of the night moved him past Nate Collard (1999-03) into second place on the career three-point list. The 42-point performance was the second of the season for Francis and the fifth of his career, tying Tom Dykstra (1966-70) for the most 40-point games in program history. With his 42 points, Francis also jumps seven spots into 17th place on Wheaton's all-time scoring list with 1,479 career points.

Kobe Eichelberger joined Francis in double figures with 14 points. Trevor Gunter tallied eight points and Luke Peters battled foul trouble to record six points and seven rebounds. Nate West led the Yellow Jackets with 33 points including seven three-pointers and was joined in double figures by Justin Moore with 20 points.

Wheaton will next be in action when the Thunder host University of Chicago for a 7 pm tip-off on Thursday, November 29 at King Arena.