Lisle, Ill. - The Wheaton Thunder men's basketball team (1-0), ranked 24th in the D3hoops.com Top-25 Preseason Poll, opened its season on Wednesday night with an 85-68 victory at Benedictine University (0-1). Wheaton hosts Transylvania University on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. in King Arena.

Thunder guard Tyson Cruickshank led all scorers with 20 points tonight, and he tied for the team rebounding lead with seven. Graduate transfer TJ Askew scored 17 points, with seven rebounds in his Thunder debut. Micah Schnyders (PICTURED LEFT), a transfer from Eastern Illinois University, scored 16 points off the Thunder bench. Schnyders led all players with three three-pointers and he had a team-high three assists. Connor Braun, a newcomer that has transferred in from Northeastern University, scored eight points with three rebounds. Senior Eddie Scott tallied seven points and Eli Considine added six points. Junior Nick Schiavello scored six points and grabbed seven rebounds.

Wheaton shot 54.5% (18-of-33) from the field in the first half, with a 45.0% (9-of-20) effort in the second half as the guests shots 50.9% (27-of-53) in the game. Wheaton had a 26.3% (5-of-19) effort from three-point range and shot 80.6% (25-of-31) at the free throw line. Benedictine shot 43.8% (28-of-64) from the field tonight, including 25% (3-of-12) behind the arc and the hosts had a 50% (9-18) effort at the charity stripe. Wheaton out-rebounded the Eagles 38-34, however, the hosts had a 15-8 edge on the offensive glass. The Thunder reserves were key tonight as Wheaton out-scored Benedictine 28-14 in bench points

Trevor Montiel led Benedictine with 18 points and a game-high eight rebounds. Marvin Agwomoh scored 17 points with six rebounds. Nick Kosich scored 16 points with four assists.

Kosich made a basket just about four minutes into the game to give the Eagles a one-point lead at 8-7. Wheaton responded with an 11-3 run to take a seven-point lead at 18-11 with 13:00 left in the first half. Schnyders made a pair of three-pointers in the run. The hosts responded and regained the lead with a four-point lead at 32-28 with 6:44 left before halftime.

Benedictine's lead was 34-32 with 4:15 left before halftime when Braun made a layup to tie the game at 34-34. Braun's basket sparked a 15-6 Thunder run to close out the first half to give the Thunder a 47-40 lead at the halftime intermission. Cruickshank led Wheaton with 14 points and six rebounds in the first half. Schnyders tallied 10 points for the guests and Askew added seven points. 

The closest the Eagles got in the second half was a three-point deficit at the Thunder led 57-54 with 12:57 left in the game. Wheaton responded at that point with eight unanswered points to give Wheaton its first double-digit lead at 11 points with a 65-54 edge for the Thunder with 9:29 left in the game. The Wheaton lead remained double digits for the remainder of the game and the largest lead of the night was the guests' 20-point bulge at 84-64 with 1:51 remaining in the game. Wheaton's defense clamped down on the Eagles in the second half as the hosts shot just 36.7% (11-of-30) in the second half, including 0-for-6 from the three-point line.