Hoboken, N.J. – The Wheaton men's basketball team, ranked 15^th in the most recent D3hoops.com Top-25 poll, closed out its trip to the New York City metropolitan area on Friday with a 74-55 victory against Stevens Institute of Technology in the Championship Game of the Stevens Holiday Tournament. Wheaton improves to 10-2 on the season with tonight's victory.

Thunder guard Tyson Cruickshank led all players with 21 points, and he added seven rebounds with rebounds and five assists. Cruickshank, the tournament's MVP, made a trio of three-pointers in shooting 8-of-15 from the field.

TJ Askew scored 15 points, with nine rebounds, four assists and three steals. Andrew Williams (PICTURED LEFT) tallied 11 points tonight, scoring a team-high nine points in the first half. Williams added five rebounds in the game. Eddie Scott added nine points and five rebounds. Nick Schiavello scored eight points, with five rebounds.

The Thunder shot 42.2% (27-of-64) from the field, including 40.7% (11-of-27) from three-point range. The Ducks posted a 33.3% (18-of-54) field goal percentage, including 30.8% (4-of-13) behind the three-point arc. Wheaton shot 64.3% (9-of-14) at the free throw line, while Stevens shot 71.4% (15-of-21) at the charity stripe. Each team had 40 rebounds in the game with a 12-10 edge on the offensive glass for the Thunder.
Wheaton never trailed in tonight's win against the Ducks. The Thunder jumped out to a 14-8 lead in the first seven minutes of the contest. Wheaton's largest lead of the first half was the 18-point advantage at halftime as Wheaton led 41-23. Williams led Wheaton in first-half scoring with nine points. Schiavello and Askew each scored eight points in the first 20 minutes, with Askew collecting six rebounds. Scott had seven points and four rebounds at the halftime intermission.

Wheaton maintained its double-digit lead throughout the second half. The closest the Ducks could get to Wheaton was a 12-point deficit when Wheaton led 44-32 16:00 left in the game. When the hosts trimmed the lead to 12 Wheaton responded with 10 unanswered points to build its lead to 22 points at 54-32 with 13:30 remaining in second half. Cruickshank scored 18 of his 21 points in the second half as he shot 7-of-8 in the final 20 minutes, including 2-for-2 from three-point range. Askew added seven points with three rebounds and three assists in the second half.

Stevens' Brett Bischoping led the Ducks with 10 points. Mike Goodall and Jack Spellman each scored nine points for the hosts. Matt Leming grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds and Spellman added 10 rebounds.

Wheaton resumes conference play when it returns to Illinois for its next matchup. The Thunder host North Park next Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. in King Arena.     

Note Worthy: Thunder head coach Mike Schauer gained sole possession of third place on Wheaton's all-time victories list with Wheaton's two wins at the Stevens Tournament as he now has 229 victories as the Thunder head coach, surpassing the 227 career wins accumulated by Ed Coray...tonight, Cruickshank became the 27th player in program history to surpass 1,400 career points as he now has 1,409 points in his Thunder career...Cruickshank reached another milestone tonight, becoming just the third player in program history to make 200 three-pointers in a career moving into sole possession of third place on the list with his performance in New Jersey that moved to exactly 200 career treys...Cruickshank now has 331 career assists as he moved into eighth place on Wheaton's all-time assists list in New Jersey as he passed Luke Peters' 327 career assists (2015-19) and Travis Senik's 326 career assists  (1996-2000).