North Manchester, Ind. – The Wheaton men's basketball team traveled to Indiana on Tuesday night to face Manchester University in the eighth all-time meeting between the two programs. The Thunder (5-2) utilized a late second-half surge to earn a 95-88 victory against the Spartans (0-6).

Preseason All-American Soren Richardson led the Thunder with 24 points, six rebounds and two steals. Richardson shot 82% from the field tonight, with a 9-for-11 effort. Sophomore Kyan VanderWoude contributed 22 points on 8-for-13 (62%) shooting from the field and six rebounds. Freshman Carson Grier scored 19 points, with five rebounds, three assists and two steals. Grier shot 64% from the field as he was 9-of-14 from the floor. Freshman Brady Wynja (PICTURED LEFT) was 6-of-7 from the field in scoring 14 points and he added eight rebounds. Sophomore Devin Martin scored eight points with a game-high seven assists.

The Thunder shot 62.7% (37-for-59) from the field tonight, including 33.3% (4-for-12) from three-point range. Manchester posted a 52.2% (35-of-67) field goal percentage, including 42.9% (12-for-28) behind the three-point arc. Wheaton shot 70.8% (17-for-24) at the free throw line, and the hosts had an 85.7% (6-for-7) effort from the charity stripe. Wheaton's inside game dominated the Spartans tonight as Thunder had a 64-38 advantage in points in the paint, and a 24-9 advantage in fast break points.

Wheaton led for the majority of a tightly contested first half. Manchester's Ty Lynas stole the ball in the closing seconds of the half, and he drove to the basket for a layup that gave the hosts a 49-48 lead at halftime. Richardson led the Thunder with 13 first-half points.

The contest was tied at 76-76 with 7:24 remaining in the when Grier made back-to-back layups to give Wheaton an 80-76 lead with 6:20 left in the game. The Spartans battled back to tie the game at 80-80 with 5:28 left in the game. Martin was fouled with 4:42 left in the game and went to the line, making both free throws to give the guests an 82-80 lead. The Thunder never gave up the lead after Martin's free throws.

Wheaton led 84-83 with 2:55 remaining when VanderWoude collected a rebound off of a missed free throw that would have tied the game if made. On the ensuing possession, Martin drove to the basket for a layup that increased the Thunder advantage to 86-83 with 2:34 remaining. Martin's layup was the start of eight unanswered Thunder points to extend the Thunder lead to 92-83 with 44-seconds left in the game as Wheaton pulled away for the win.

Wheaton returns to action next Wednesday with a 7:00 p.m. tipoff at Augustana. Next week's matchup with the Vikings is the CCIW opener.