Wheaton, Ill. - The Wheaton men's basketball team picked up an 81-73 victory against Millikin (10-13, 4-11 CCIW) at home on Wednesday night. Wheaton out-scored the Big Blue 48-30 in the second half, overcoming a 10-point halftime deficit.

Wheaton concludes the regular season with an 18-7 overall record and an 11-5 mark in conference play. The Thunder will be the No. 3 seed in next week's CCIW Tournament. The No. 1 and 2 seeds will receive a first-round bye on Feb. 19. Wheaton, the No. 3 seed ,will host the No. 6 seed (TBD) in the first round on Feb. 19. The other First Round matchup on Feb. 19 will be in Bloomington as fourth seeded Illinois Wesleyan host the No. 5 seed (TBD). The two remaining teams from the first round games will join the No. 1 (Augustana) and No. 2 (North Central) seeds on Feb. 22 for the semifinal games at Augustana, the No. 1 seed. Rock Island will be the site of the CCIW Tournament Championship Game on Feb. 23.

Thunder senior Aston Francis led all players with 31 points tonight, making five three-pointers. Francis shot 9-of-17 from the field, with eight three rebounds and four assists. Francis, playing in his 76th career game for the Thunder, made a three-pointer with 15:41 remaining in the first half to give Wheaton a 5-4 lead. The trey marked the 76th-consecutive game that he has had at least one three-pointer to surpass the 24-year old NCAA Division III record for most consecutive games with at least one three-pointer. The longstanding record of 75 had been held by Widener's Chris Carideo (1992-95).

Luke Peters scored 11 points with three assists for the hosts tonight. Peters collected seven rebounds, including five offensive boards. Spencer Peters scored 10 points, with five rebounds and two assists. Anajuwon Spencer and Luke Anthony each tallied eight points for the Thunder. Freshman Tyson Cruickshank scored six points with two assists off the Thunder bench.

Peters made a three-pointer with 5:00 left in the first half to give the Thunder a 29-28 lead. Millkin's Elijah Henry made a layup with 4:43 remaining in the opening half to spark a 15-4 Millikin run to close out the half. The Big Blue surge allowed the guests to lead 43-33 at the halftime intermission.

Wheaton opened the second half with a 17-6 scoring advantage that concluded on a Cruickshank three-pointer that gave Wheaton a 50-49 lead with 14:50 remaining in regulation. The Thunder led by as many as nine points twice in the second half. Wheaton's second nine-point advantage was a 70-61 Thunder lead with 4:49 remaining in the game thanks to a Luke Anthony three-pointer. Millikin's Zach Fisher made a basket on the possession that followed Anthony's trey to ignite a 10-3 Millikin run to cut the Thunder lead to 73-71 with 1:15 left in the game.

Francis made a basket with 1:00 left in the game to extend the hosts' lead to 75-71 and Anthony stole the ball on Millikin's in-bounds play to give Wheaton the ball for a crucial possession. Wheaton called timeout after Anthony's critical steal and Anthony made it to the basket for a layup that increased the Thunder lead to 77-71 with 44-seconds remaining in the game. A pair of missed three-point attempts by Millkin were followed by a Francis rebound. He was fouled and made a pair of free throws to increase the 'Orange and Blue' lead to 79-71 with 24-seconds left in the contest. Millikin's Davante Harrell made a basket with 15-seconds left to trim the Wheaton lead to 79-73. Francis made a pair of free throws with 12-seconds remaining in the game to account for the 81-73 final score.
 
Wheaton shot 44.3% (27-of-61) from the field tonight, including 45.2% (14-of-31) behind the three-point arc. Millikin had a 36.1% (26-of-72%) field goal percentage in the matchup, including 32% (8-of-25) from three-point range. Millikin shot 86.7% (13-of-15) at the free throw line and Wheaton had a 68.4% (13-of-19) effort at the charity stripe. The Big Blue out-rebounded the Thunder 47-35, including a 22-11 edge on the offensive glass.

Jack Marinko and Davante Harrell each scored 18 points for the Big Blue tonight. Calvin Fisher scored nine points with four assists and Zach Fisher added eight points.

Note Worthy: In the final CCIW regular season game of his career, Francis concludes his league tenure with 1,397 career points in conference play to rank third all-time in league play in scoring...Francis' overall career point total is now 2,120 points as he surpassed Carthage's Jason Wiertel for 10th place on the CCIW's all-time scoring list...Peters' three assists tonight improves his career total to 345 assists in his four seasons as he surpasses the 344 career assists by Kent Raymond for seventh place on Wheaton's all-time assists list...Francis now has 342 career three-pointers as he passed Emerson's Robert Hennigan (2001-04) for 21st place on the NCAA Division III all-time three-pointers list.