Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton Thunder men's basketball team hosted Carthage on Saturday evening for a CCIW matchup inside of King Arena. The Firebirds held off a spirted effort by the Thunder as Carthage  emerged with the 85-78 victory.

Thunder sophomore Soren Richardson led all players with 26 points tonight in an effort that included four three-pointers. Noah Hedrick scored 14 points with three assists. Freshman Jack Speers tallied a career-high 12 points off the Thunder bench, shooting 4-for-5 from three-point range. Fellow freshman Kyan VanderWoude scored 10 points tonight and Kyle Neibch added nine points. Richardson, Hedrick and VanderWoude each collected a team-high seven rebounds for the Thunder. Freshman Devin Martin distributed a team-best four assists for the hosts.

The Thunder recorded a 41.3% (26-of-63) field goal percentage tonight, including 40% (14-of-35) behind the three-point arc. The Firebirds shot 43.1% (28-of-65) from the field, including 46.9% (15-of-32) from three-point range. Wheaton shot 92.3% (12-of-13) at the free throw line and Carthage had a 77.8% (14-of-18) effort at the charity stripe. The Firebirds out-rebounded Wheaton 42-35, including an 11-7 advantage on the offensive glass.

Ryan Johnson led Carthage with 22 points and nine rebounds tonight. AJ Johnson tallied 20 points with six rebounds and seven assists. Riley Brooks scored 15 points and AJ Williams added 13 points for the guests.

The Firebirds never trailed tonight as the guests jumped out to a 13-5 lead in the first five minutes of the contest. Carthage led 31-20 with 7:13 left in the first half when Richardson made a pair of free throws to start a string of 11-unanswered points to trim the guests' lead to 31-30 with 4:35 remaining before halftime. The 11-0 run was highlighted by Thunder three-pointers by Neibch, VanderWoude, and Speers.

Ryan Johnson had a dunk that stopped the Wheaton and began a 6-0 run for the Firebirds as Carthage increased its lead to 37-30 with 3:20 remaining before halftime. Carthage led Wheaton 44-40 with four-tenths of a second remaining in the first half when Richardson drained a three-pointer from just past the midcourt line as the Firebirds left 44-43 at the halftime intermission.

Richardson (PICTURED LEFT) led the Thunder with 12 first-half points, adding four rebounds. Neibch tallied nine points for the hosts, and VanderWoude scored eight points with six rebounds. The Firebirds' Ryan Johnson led all players in first-half scoring as he tallied 14 points with six rebounds and two blocked shots in the first 20 minutes. Riley Brooks and AJ Johnson each tallied eight points, as Johnson dished out four assists in the first half.

Carthage gradually pulled away from Wheaton over the first ten minutes of the second half as the guests led by 16 points at 70-54 with 10:45 remaining in the game. The Firebirds led by 14 points at 83-69 with a little more than two minutes left in the game when Hedrick converted an and-one to spark a 9-2 Thunder run to close out the game. Richardson made a pair of three-pointers in the late-game run.

Wheaton remains at home on Wednesday night for its next CCIW contest as the Thunder host Millikin in a 7:00 p.m. tipoff in King Arena.