Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton men's basketball team earned its second NCAA Tournament win of the weekend on Saturday night as the Thunder earned a 75-71 victory against St. Norbert College (20-8) in the Second Round of the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament.
The Thunder advance to the Sectional round of the tournament as one of the final 16 teams still competing in the D3 Tournament. Wheaton will face University of Saint Joseph (29-1) next Friday in the Sectional Semifinal, hosted by Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia. Wheaton's game will tip off at 4:30 p.m. (EST), while the second Sectional Semifinal between Christopher Newport (26-3) and Mary Hardin Baylor (23-5) is slated for a 7:30 p.m. (EST) start time. Tickets for each day are $15 for chairback seating and $10 for general admission. Children 2 and under are free. Tickets can be purchased online begnning at noon (EST) on Tuesday and the can be purchased
at this link.
Thunder guard
Tyson Cruickshank led Wheaton in tonight's win against St. Norbert with a game-high 26 points. He shot 9-of-15 from the field, including 3-for-6 from three-point range. He also had three assists, three steals and five rebounds.
TJ Askew scored 14 points, with 10 rebounds and three assists. Askew tied Cruickshank for Wheaton's lead in made three-pointer with a trio of treys. Junior
Nick Schiavello (PICTURED LEFT) played well with 12 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Junior
Nate Sock scored 11 points, shooting a perfect 4-for-4 from the field, including 3-for-3 from behind the three-point arc.
Andrew Williams scored six points with seven rebounds.
The Thunder shot 45.5% (25-of-55) from the field tonight, including 37.9% (12-of-29) from three-point range. The Green Knights had a 50% (25-for-50) field goal percentage, including 35.3% (6-of-17) behind the three-point arc. The hosts had a 66.7% (14-of-21) effort at the free throw line and the Green Knights had a 62.5% (15-of-24) effort at the charity stripe. The hosts out-rebounded SNC 33-32, including a 9-8 advantage for the Thunder offensive glass.
Evan Glaser led St. Norbert tonight with 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field. Aidan Harrington scored 14 points with five rebounds. Carter Gebler tallied 13 points, with four assists for the guests. Garrett Grzesk was the fourth SNC player to score in double digits tonight with 12 points, adding three assists.
Tonight's contest was tied 8-8 in the first 3:10 of the evening. Sock made a three-pointer with 16:05 remaining in the first half to start a string of 12 unanswered points to give the Thunder a 20-8 lead with 12:50. All four field goals in the 12-0 run came on three-pointers as Sock, Schiavello, Cruickshank and Askew each made a trifecta in the run. It was then St. Norbert's turn for an offensive surge as the Green Knights had a 15-0 run to take their first lead of the game at 23-20 with 9:00 remaining in the opening half. The stopped the SNC run and regained the lead to hold a 40-36 lead at halftime.
Cruickshank led all players in first-half scoring with 11 points. He added four rebounds, with three assists. Askew had 10 points in the opening half and Schiavello added seven points. Glaser scored eight points in the first half for SNC. Harrington and Michael Payant each registered seven points for the guests in the half. Jamison Nickolai had six rebounds for the Green Knights in the first half.
Wheaton's largest lead in the first 10 minutes of the second half was a nine-point bulge at 56-47 with 12:34 remaining in regulation.
Wheaton again led by nine points at 72-63 with 44-seconds left in the game when Grzesk made a three-pointer to cut the Thunder lead to 72-66. Wheaton missed the front end of a one-and-one on its next possession and Gebler made a trey to trim the Thunder lead to 72-69 with 30-seconds remaining. Askew made one of two free throw attempts on Wheaton's next possession to extend the Thunder advantage to 73-69 with 29-seconds left. Gebler was fouled on the next SNC possession and made a pair of free throws to cut Wheaton's advantage to 73-71 with 21-seconds left in the second half. Cruickshank made the front end of a one-and-one at the line to give the hosts a 74-71 lead with 0:19 remaining. On their next possession, the Green Knights missed a pair of three-point attempts and after the second trey Askew collected the defensive rebound. Askew was fouled with two seconds left and made the second of his two free throw attempts account for the 75-71 final score.
Note Worthy: Cruickshank's 26-point effort tonight now gives him 1,731 career points to pass Randy Pfund's 1,710 career points for ninth on Wheaton's all-time scoring list…Cruickshank moved into fifth place on Wheaton's career assists list with his 409 assists, surpassing Tyler Peters' 407 career assists…his three three-pointers tonight gives him 250 career assists to become just the second player in program history to reach that milestone.
