Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton Thunder men's basketball team hosted its first home CCIW contest on Saturday night as North Park University (6-3, 3-0 CCIW) visited King Arena. The Vikings emerged with a narrow 78-75 victory against the Thunder. Wheaton (3-8, 0-2 CCIW) is now off until January 4 when the Thunder host Illinois Wesleyan in a 7:15 p.m. tipoff.
Tonight's game was tightly contested with 16 lead changes and nine ties. North Park's largest lead of the game was an eight-point advantage midway through the first half and Wheaton's largest lead was a seven-point bulge early in the second half.
The contest was tied 69-69 with 4:23 remaining in the second half when North Park's Taijon Barry made a layup to give the guests a 71-69 lead. The two teams traded free throws as NPU led 72-70 with 2:00 left in the game. North Park's TJ Gardner made a layup that extended his team's lead to four points at 74-70. Thunder guard
Soren Richardson made a key layup on Wheaton's next possession to cut the guests' lead to 74-72 with 1:34 left in the game.
North Park missed a three-pointer on its next possession; however, a critical Thunder turnover gave the ball back to the Vikings as Davante Robinson made a basket to extend North Park's lead to 76-72 with 22-seconds left in regulation. Richardson made a three-pointer on Wheaton's next possession as he cut the guests' lead to 76-75 with seven seconds remaining. Wheaton committed two fouls to send the Vikings to the free throw line for a one-and-one situation. North Park's Rico Powell made both free throws as Wheaton had one final possession that started with a little more than three seconds left in the game. Wheaton progressed the ball up the court and Richardson had a three-point attempt that hit the rim and barely missed descending down the twine as the Vikings escaped with a 78-75 victory.
Richardson led a quintet of Thunder players that scored in double digits tonight as he recorded a game-high 22 points. Richardson added three steals.
Kyle Neibch and
Noah Hedrick each scored 13 points for the Thunder. Hedrick gathered a game-high nine rebounds, and Neibch distributed three assists with two steals.
Kyan VanderWoude shot 5-for-7 from the field, scoring 11 points with four rebounds.
Devin Martin scored 10 points with four rebounds.
Barry scored 17 points, with seven rebounds to lead North Park. Lance Nelson tallied 15 points for the guests, Powell scored 12 points and Gardner added 10 points.
Wheaton shot 51.7% (30-of-58) from the field, including 35.7% (5-for-14) from three-point range. The Vikings posted a 46.7% (28-of-60) field goal percentage tonight, including 31% (9-of-29) behind the three-point arc. The Thunder shot 62.5% (10-of-16) at the free throw line, while NPU had an 86.7% (13-of-15) effort at the charity stripe. Wheaton owned a 34-31 rebounding advantage, including a 10-9 edge on the offensive glass.
Wheaton started tonight's game with a 7-2 run in the first two-and-a-half minutes of the contest. The two teams traded leads as the half wore on with Wheaton leading 44-43 at halftime. Richardson led all players with 13 points in the first half and Neibch added 10 points, with nine points for VanderWoude. Barry led all players in first-half scoring as he recorded 15 points, with Nelson adding 12.
