Naperville, Ill. – The Wheaton men's basketball team dropped an overtime conference contest at the No. 25 ranked North Central College on Saturday night, 74-71 in overtime. With the loss, the Thunder falls to 9-4 overall and 3-1 in the CCIW, while North Central improves to 10-3 overall and 3-1 in CCIW play.
Four Wheaton players scored in the double digits, led by
Tyson Cruickshank (PICTURED ABOVE) and
Luke Anthony who had 17 points each. Cruickshank also added eight rebounds.
Nyameye
Adom (PICTURED LEFT) added 14 points for the Thunder, and
Cade Alioth scored 12 points to go along with a team-high 11 rebounds and six assists.
As a team, Wheaton out-shot North Central from everywhere except the free-throw line. The Thunder shot 46.3% (25-54) overall, including 47.6% (10-of-21) from three-point range. The Cardinals shot 41.7% (25-60) overall and just 29.4% (5-of-17) from long range. But Wheaton's foul trouble and North Central's subsequent bonus points gave them the edge in this tight contest: NCC shot 90.5% (19-of-21) from the free-throw line, while the Thunder were 73.3% (11-of-15) from the charity stripe. Wheaton out-rebounded the Cardinals 38-28 but also committed 18 turnovers to North Central's eight, and NCC out-blocked Wheaton 4-1.
The Thunder and Cardinals traded punches throughout the entire contest, with the game featuring 11 tie scores (for a total of 9:09 of play time) and 10 lead changes. North Central jumped out to a 4-0 lead before Wheaton went on a 7-0 run of its own to take the lead just 3:30 into the game. The Thunder would lead by as many as five in the first half before an 8-point run gave the Cardinals a one-shot edge halfway through the frame. Wheaton was able to tie the game and even take another brief lead with less than 5:00 remaining in the period, but North Central scored seven of the half's remaining nine points to take a 32-27 edge at the break.
The second half saw Wheaton climb back take a 42-39 lead with 13:58 remaining, and the Thunder never trailed the rest of the half, even leading by as many as eight (58-50) with just over seven minutes to play. But in the final three minutes of the game, North Central drew an Alioth foul to score two free throws and then a
Gavin Hawkins foul for an and-one play to send the game to extra minutes with the score knotted at 63.
In similar fashion to the first two regular periods, both teams traded early leads – with Wheaton holding a 70-67 advantage with 1:42 to play – before North Central took its final lead on a three-pointer with 00:43 left and went on to win 74-71.
The Thunder will host Carthage College (9-3 overall, 1-2 CCIW) next Saturday, January 11 in King Arena.
