Wheaton, Ill. – The 11th-ranked Thunder men's basketball team (7-2, 1-1 CCIW) hosted Elmhurst in a key CCIW matchup inside King Arena on Saturday evening. The Bluejays (7-2, 1-2 CCIW) sent the game to overtime on a three-pointer in the final second of regulation and the guests emerged with the 79-75 victory in overtime.

Tyson Cruickshank led the Thunder with 20 points tonight, adding a game-high five assists with three steals and two blocked shots. TJ Askew tallied 18 points with six rebounds and four assists. Nick Schiavello (PICTURED LEFT) and Eddie Scott each scored 12 points for the Thunder. Schiavello grabbed a team-high nine rebounds, with four steals to his credit. Andrew Williams scored six points with four rebounds.

Wheaton posted a 36.4% (24-of-66) field goal percentage, including 33.3% (8-of-24) from three-point range. The Bluejays shot 44.9% (31-of-69) from the field, including 43.8% (7-of-16) behind the three-point arc. The Thunder posted an 82.6% (19-of-23) effort at the free throw line and Elmhurst shot 71.4% (10-of-14) at the charity stripe. The guests out-rebounded Wheaton 44-38, including a 12-10 edge on the offensive glass.

Elmhurst scored the first eight points tonight. The guests led by six points at 19-13 when Askew made a jumper in the paint to start an 8-2 Thunder run that setup the first tie of the night at 21-21. Eli Considine made a basket with 3:08 left in the first half to tie the game. Scott made a three-pointer in the closing seconds of the first half as he trimmed Elmhurst's four-point lead to 29-28 at the halftime intermission. Cruickshank led the Thunder with 10 first-half points. John Ittounas led the Bluejays with 12 points in the first 20 minutes.
Askew made a three-pointer with 18:27 left in the second half to start a string of nine unanswered points for the Thunder to give Wheaton a39-33 lead with 17:10 remaining in regulation as the run was capped by a Schiavello layup.

Wheaton had its largest lead of the game with a 10-point margin at 50-40 with 10:42 remaining in the second half. However, the Bluejays responded with a 16-4 run retake the lead at 56-54 with 4:50 remaining in regulation.

Ittounas stole the ball and zipped down the court for a layup to give the guests a 63-61 lead with 1:21 remaining in regulation. Both teams traded misses on the two possessions that followed, and Scott drained a huge three-pointer with 15-seconds left in the second half to give Wheaton the 64-63 lead. The Bluejays missed a field goal on their possession that ensued and Askew snagged the rebound and then was fouled. Askew made both free throws to extend Wheaton's lead to 66-63 with five seconds remaining in regulation. Elmhurst took a timeout and on their final possession of the second half Ittounas drained a three-pointer with 0.8-seconds left in the half to tie the game at 66-66 and send the contest to overtime.

Askew scored a team-high 13 points in the second half with Schiavello adding eight points and five rebounds. Cruickshank scored seven points and Scott added six. Ittounas led Elmhurst with 14 points.
Schiavello made a layup to open the overtime scoring and Elmhurst's Matt Woloch responded with a jumper to tie the game at 68-68. Cruickshank gave Wheaton a 71-68 lead on a three-pointer with 3:42 remaining in the overtime period. Elmhurst was fouled on a three-point attempt on the possession that followed the Cruickshank trey and after the guests made all three free throws the contest was tied at 71-71 with 3:25 left.

The guests built up a three-point lead at 75-72 when Scott made a three-pointer to tie the game at 75-75 with 1:36 remaining in the overtime. Ittounas made a jumper on the Elmhurst possession that followed, and the guests collected a rebound on Wheaton's missed three-point attempt that followed. Wesley Hooker made a layup with 19-seconds remaining to give the Bluejays at 79-75 lead. Wheaton had two three-point attempts in the final 10-seconds of overtime, but Wheaton could not score, and Elmhurst earned the 79-75 win.

Ittounas led the Bluejays with 30 points  and three assists. Tagen Pearson scored 18 points off the Elmhurst Bench and Hooker tallied 12 points with five rebounds,. Jonathan Zapinski grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds, with three assists and five blocked shots.

Wheaton returns to action next Saturday afternoon at Illinois Wesleyan. The Thunder and Titans tipoff at 4:15 p.m. at the Shirk Center in Bloomington.