Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton Thunder men's basketball team defeated Elmhurst, 85-75 on Tuesday night in an opening round game of the 2019 CCIW Men's Basketball Tournament. Wheaton improves to 19-7 on the season. Elmhurst, the tournament's sixth seed, ends the season with a 12-14 record.
Wheaton, the tournament's No. 3 seed, will face No. 2 seed North Central on Friday at 5:00 p.m. in the opening semifinal game of the tournament in Rock Island. No. 1 seed Augustana plays No. 4 Illinois Wesleyan at 7:00 p.m. in Friday's second semifinal in the Quad Cities. The CCIW Tournament Championship Game will be played on Saturday at 7:00 p.m.
Aston Francis led the Thunder with 32 points, making six three-pointers. Francis also grabbed seven rebounds with three assists.
Luke Anthony scored 14 points off the Thunder bench, making three three-pointers with three assists.
Spencer Peterson scored 10 points with six rebounds and six assists.
Anajuwon Spencer (PICTURED LEFT) recorded 10 points with six rebounds, three assists and three blocked shots.
Tyson Cruickshank scored seven points,
Luke Peters added six points and
Nyameye Adom tallied five points with three rebounds.
Wheaton overcame a nine-point halftime deficit at 42-33 with a strong second half. The Thunder shot 42.9% (12-of-28) from the field in the first half and improved to 56.5% (13-of-23) in the second half. The Thunder shot a 49% (25-of-51) field goal percentage for the game, including 41.7% (15-of-36) from three-point range. Elmhurst posted a 53.1% (17-of-32) field goal percentage in the first half and the Thunder defense clamped down on the Blue Jays in the second half holding the guests to 35.7% (10-of-28). Elmhurst shot 45% (27-of-60) from the field in the game, including 36.7% (11-of-30) behind the three-point arc. Wheaton shot 83.3% (20-of-24) at the free throw line and the Bluejays had a 71.4% (10-of-14) effort at the charity stripe. Each team collected 31 rebounds in the game as the Bluejays had an 8-5 edge on the offensive glass.
Derek Dotlich led the Bluejays with 29 points, five rebounds and two assists. Jake Rhode scored 21 points, five assists and two steals. Jeremy Ireland scored 11 points, with eight rebounds and five assists for the guests.
The Thunder opened the second half with three-pointers by Spencer, Francis and Peterson to tie the game at 42-42 with 15:27 left in the game. The matchup remained tightly contested over the next 10 minutes. Rhode drained a three-pointer with 4:36 left in the game to give the Bluejays a 71-68 lead.
Francis (PICTURED RIGHT) made the second of two-consecutive three-pointers to give Wheaton a 74-71 lead with 3:42 remaining in the game. Spencer had a resounding block and rebound on a shot attempt by Ireland with 1:57 remaining in the game to keep Wheaton's lead at 78-73. Francis' treys sparked a 14-4 Thunder run to close out the game as Wheaton earned the 85-75 victory.
Note Worthy: Francis now has 2,152 career points as he passed Millikin's Scott Steagall for ninth place on the CCIW all-time scoring list...the Thunder senior now has 133 three-pointers this season as he moves into 20th place on the Division III single-season three-pointer list, passing Loras' Chris Jans (1990-91)...Francis is now 19th in Division III with 348 career three-pointers...Francis eight field goals tonight gives him 679 career field goals to move into fifth place on Wheaton's all-time field goals list, passing Randy Pfund (1970-74).
