Decatur, Ill. -- CCIW competition finally returned in men's basketball on Wednesday night, with last year's regular season conference champions traveling to central Illinois to take on the Millikin Big Blue this evening. The hosts outscored Wheaton by six points in the second half of a low-scoring, competitive matchup to claim a 67-61 victory. The Thunder's season record now sits at 1-5 overall and 0-1 in CCIW play after their first conference contest of the new campaign.
Nate Sock buried a three-pointer on the first possession of tonight's game to give Wheaton an early lead, and the returning
Nick Schiavello registered his first basket of the season to make it 5-0 to the away side. The Thunder traded buckets with the Big Blue in the following minutes, and a pair of threes by
Daniel Garza gave Wheaton its largest lead of the contest at 15-9 seven and a half minutes in. But Millikin edged in front for the first time at the midway point of the first half and capped a 9-0 run with a shot from distance to establish a 23-17 lead. The Thunder answered with a ten-point surge of their own, but the home team scored six of the half's last eight points to earn a 29-29 tie at halftime.
The visitors began the second period well offensively, and a pair of free throws from Sock moved the Thunder's advantage back up to six points three minutes into the half. Neither team fully seized the momentum in the subsequent exchanges, and Wheaton held its lead on the scoreboard without managing to create true separation with their hosts. But the Big Blue earned a trip to the foul line with eight minutes remaining, and this proved to be a turning point in the game, as Millikin cut the deficit to two points and held Wheaton scoreless for the next six minutes. After four free throws and a three-ball put the hosts on top, 63-56, with 35 seconds left, another three-point + jump shot combo from Sock and Schiavello brought the Thunder back within touching distance at 63-61. But Millikin held onto the ball, held its nerve from the charity stripe in the final seconds, and forced two missed three-point shots from their guests to eventually secure the six-point win.
Neither team had a lights-out shooting performance on Wednesday, but Wheaton posted the superior three-point percentage by knocking down 11 triples. Each side went at least 75% from the foul line, with Millikin attempting 13 more free throws, all but one of which came in the second half. Both sides gathered in 34 rebounds, and the Thunder forced 11 turnovers while giving up only nine. Millikin earned scoring advantages in the paint and on fast breaks, while Wheaton registered 16 points off of turnovers, seven more than the Big Blue.
Connor Braun led the visitors in scoring this evening with 14 points, while
Kyle Neibch was next with 11 to his name and a team-high three three-pointers. Schiavello, Sock, and
Nathan Clark each contributed eight points, with the former dishing out a team-leading four assists.
RJ Veliz grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds and joined Garza on six points.
Wheaton will look to shake off a disappointing result to open the conference schedule when the men's squad returns to King Arena to face North Central on Saturday. The Thunder's 7:15 PM matchup will be the last home game of 2023 before closing the year with three-consecutive road trips and a non-conference tournament in Wooster, Ohio.
