Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton men's basketball opened the home portion of its 2025-26 schedule on Wednesday evening with a matchup in King Arena against Lake Forest College (0-2). The Thunder utilized a strong first half and held off the Foresters late in the second half as the hosts earned a 93-89 victory. Wheaton is now 2-0 on the season and tonight's win and last Saturday's season-opening 99-95 win at Concordia (Wis.) marks the first time Wheaton has opened the season with consecutive wins while scoring more than 90 points in each of those games.

Five Thunder players scored in double digits tonight, led by Soren Richardson's 27 points on 57.1% (8-for-14) shooting from the field. Richardson also shot 88.9% (8-for-9) at the free throw line, and he contributed four assists with four rebounds.

Sophomore Devin Martin (PICTURED LEFT) had a "double-double" for the Thunder with 15 points and 11 assists. His 11 assists tonight are the most by a Thunder player since Tyson Cruickshank had 19 points and 11 assists in a home win against Millikin on February 4, 2023. Martin also contributed three steals tonight.

Freshman Carson Grier scored 16 points in 7-of-10 shooting from the field, and he added three blocked shots and six rebounds. Kyan VanderWoude tallied 14 points with eight rebounds. Senior Kyle Neibch scored 12 points, making four three-pointers.

Wheaton never trailed Lake Forest tonight. The Thunder jumped out to a 23-6 lead in the first five and a half minutes of the game. The hosts dominated LFC in the first half as Wheaton led 48-33 at halftime as Wheaton shot 7-of-13 (53.8%) behind the three-point arc. The hosts also had a 90% (9-for-10) effort at the free throw line in the first 20 minutes.

Richardson and Martin each scored 12 points to lead the Thunder in first-half scoring. VanderWoude had nine points and Grier added seven. Martin had four first-half points and VanderWoude had six rebounds. Cristian Rodriguez scored 13 points with five rebounds to lead the Foresters in the first half.

The largest lead of the game was 20 points on two occasions in the second half, the final time was at 74-54 with 12:39 left in the game. The Thunder led by 17 points at 82-65 with 8:41 remaining when Lake Forest's Chase Honarvar made a layup that started a 9-0 LFC run that cut Wheaton's lead to eight points a 82-74 with a 6:15 remaining.

The Thunder led 87-85 with 1:31 left in the game when Grier made a nifty layup and was fouled. He made the ensuing free throw to extend the hosts' lead to 90-85. Lake Forest's Coltrane Marchand made a layup to cut Wheaton's lead to 90-87 with 1:13 left. Richardson was fouled with 38 seconds remaining and made both free throws to increase Wheaton's lead to 92-87. Nikolas Popovic made a LFC layup with 20 seconds remaining to cut Wheaton's lead to 92-89. VanderWoude made a free throw with 19-seconds left to account for the 93-89 final score. Lake forest missed a layup in the closing seconds, and Grier grabbed the rebound and Wheaton was able to hold on for the win.

Richardson led all players with 15 points in the second half, while Neibch and Grier each added nine points. Alex Forowycz led the Foresters with 12 second-half points and Anthony Favia added 10 points.
Rodriguez led Lake Forest tonight with 22 points and six rebounds. Forowycz scored 19 points with four assists for the guests.  

The Thunder return to the road on Saturday for a matchup at Hope College. Saturday's contest against the Dutchmen tips off at 3:00 p.m. (EST) in Holland, Michigan.