Wooster, Ohio – The Wheaton men's basketball team defeated College of Wooster 78-70 in front of a capacity crowd on Saturday at Wooster's Timken Gymnasium in a Second Round matchup of the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament. Tonight's win marks the fifth time in Wheaton's 11 NCAA Division III Tournament appearances that the program has advanced past the second round and the third time under head coach Mike Schauer. The Thunder head coach is 8-4 all-time in the Division III Tournament in his five postseason appearances as Wheaton's coach. 

Wheaton advances to next Friday's Sectional Semifinal round of the tournament. The Thunder will face Augustana on Friday in one of two semifinal matches. The other semifinal matchup will feature Oswego State and Marietta College. The site of next weekend's Sectional will be announced by the NCAA on Sunday.

Aston Francis led all players with 43 points and 12 rebounds, plus three steals. Tonight's effort followed his 42-point and 13 rebound game against Hanover on Friday in the tournament's first round as Francis is the first Wheaton player in program history to tally two 40-point games in the NCAA Tournament. 

Luke Anthony (PICTURED LEFT) scored nine points with three assists. Nyameye Adom and Kobe Eichelberger each scored six points.

Wheaton head coach Mike Schauer said of tonight's victory. "This was an unbelievable game. This is the best win of my career." He added, "I am proud of my guys, they just fought and fought. The biggest thing tonight is that playing in an environment like this is a fairly normal road game for us. This is not a unique experience for us and I thought that really showed tonight."

The Fighting Scots led 14-11 with 12:46 remaining in the opening half when a Kobe Eichelberger laypup sparked seven-consecutive points for the Thunder. Wheaton's 7-0 run was capped by a Trevor Gunter layup with 11:03 left in the first half. Wheaton never trailed in the remainder of the first half. Wheaton's largest lead of the first 20 minutes was its 38-33 halftime lead. The final three points of the half came on a fall-away three-pointer by Francis with 34-seconds remaining before halftime.

The Thunder continued to maintain a lead in the opening 10 minutes of the second half. The Thunder led 45-44 with 14:05 left in the second half when Francis made a three-pointer as he was falling down to extend the guests' lead to 48-44. It was the first of two-straight three-pointers for Francis and keyed an 8-0 run for the Thunder to increase its lead to 53-44 with 12:00 left in the contest.

Wooster trimmed Wheaton's lead to three points at 53-50 with 10:40 left in the game. However, Wheaton again responded with a run. A 12-4 Thunder run gave Wheaton a 65-54 lead with 5:51 remaining in the game. The run was started by a Luke Anthony three-pointer with 8:38 remaining in the matchup.

Francis' three-pointer with 3:24 left in the game was the dagger for Wheaton as the trey extended the guests' lead to 68-59. Wheaton closed out the game for the 78-70 victory as Francis scored 29 of Wheaton's 40 points in the second half.

Wheaton shot 40.3% (25-of-62) from the field, including 29.6% (8-of-27) behind the three-point arc. The Fighting Scots posted a 42.4% (25-of-59) field goal percentage, including 40% (8-of-20) from three-point range. A key for Wheaton tonight was the team's 87% (20-of-23) effort at the free throw line, including a 12-for-13 effort by Francis. Wooster shot 63.2% (12-of-19) at the charity stripe. Wheaton dominated the hosts on the glass as the Thunder out-rebounded Wooster, 43-32, including an 11-6 edge on the offensive glass. 

Danyon Hempy led Wooster with 28 points and five rebounds. Reece Dupler scored 13 points and Dontae Williams grabbe a team-high 10 rebounds for the hosts.

Note Worthy: Francis now has 2,267 career points as he moved past North Central's Bill Warden (2,249 points) for the seventh-highest career scoring total in CCIW history...Francis has made 365 career three-pointers, a mark that is tied for the 12th-most ever by a Division III player as he passed three players on the all-time list tonight.