Wheaton, Ill. -- The Wheaton men's basketball team welcomed local rivals Elmhurst University to King Arena on Wednesday night for a CCIW matchup. The visiting Bluejays led wire-to-wire in tonight's contest and secured a 72-55 win to earn their second victory over the Thunder this season. This game marked the Thunder's last fixture before their enforced bye date in the conference rotation, meaning that Wheaton will not play this coming weekend. The team returns to competition next Wednesday night at North Park University for a 7 PM matchup.

Elmhurst started the game on the front foot, knocking down three-pointers on its first two possessions. Tonight's highest scorer, Soren Richardson, then drained consecutive baskets to pull the hosts back within one point. However, the Bluejays proceeded to rattle off an 11-0 run over the next four minutes to make it 17-5 in their favor. Wheaton temporarily halted this surge with a three of its own, but the guests scored the next seven points and would lead by double-digits for the remainder of the game. Richardson accounted for the Thunder's last seven points of the first half, and his jumper in the lane in the closing seconds trimmed Elmhurst's lead down to ten and gave Wheaton a boost heading into the break. But the visitors opened the following period with a 15-0 stretch to pull away for good and were able to see out their road win with a confident second-half display. Kyan VanderWoude (pictured right) scored nine of the last 11 points of the contest as the home side ended the game on an 11-0 run of its own.  

The Bluejays shot an even 40% from the floor tonight, including a 15-30 mark in the second half, and held Wheaton to just a 31.7% figure for the game. Neither team had its best outing from three-point range, but the Thunder posted a marginally superior figure and were solid from the free throw line, making nine of their ten second-half attempts compared to an 11-16 mark for Elmhurst. The two sides were virtually tied in total rebounds and each squad brought down 12 offensive boards on Wednesday. The Bluejays' notable 14-7 advantage in turnovers aided their winning effort tonight, as did their 30-18 scoring advantage in the paint. The visitors posted eight more points off of turnovers and 15 points from the bench to Wheaton's six.

Richardson finished with 20 points to lead all scorers and made a joint game-high four triples while shooting close to 50% from the field. The sophomore also collected six rebounds and dished out a pair of assists. VanderWoude had another well-rounded showing, totaling 13 points and game-highs of 11 boards and six assists for his second double-double in the space of a week. Remarkably, the freshman was the only Wheaton player to reach the free throw line in Wednesday's contest, accounting for all nine of the Thunder's points from the charity stripe. Kyle Neibch sank three three-pointers and finished with 13 points, while Devin Martin brought in eight rebounds. 

Wheaton will now head into its bye weekend and use the extra days to prepare for its next test against a talented North Park side that currently sits third in the conference standings with a CCIW record of 8-2.