Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton men's basketball team defeated North Central on Saturday night in King Arena, 73-68. The Thunder overcame a 13-point second half deficit to battle back and earn tonight's win. Wheaton closes its 2024-25 season with four victories in its final six contests.

Thunder guard Soren Richardson closed out his tremendous sophomore season with 28 points and seven rebounds. Freshman Kyan VanderWoude added 21 points for the hosts. Senior Noah Hedrick, Kyle Neibch and Jack Speers each added six points. Senior Steven Schultz distributed seven assists with six rebounds, and freshman Devin Martin added six rebounds.

Wheaton recorded a 40.4% (23-of-57) field goal percentage tonight, including 25% (6-of-24) behind the three-point arc. North Central shot 36.9% (24-of-65) from the field, including 24% (6-of-25) from three-point range. The Thunder shot 84% (21-for-25) at the free throw line and the Cardinals had a 73.7% (14-of-19) at the charity stripe. Wheaton out-rebounded the guests 40-39, while the Cardinals had a 10-7 edge on the offensive glass. Wheaton played well in transition tonight as the Thunder out-scored NCC 16-6 in fastbreak points.

Wheaton jumped out to a 12-6 in the first five minutes tonight. The Thunder led 16-12 with 7:20 left in the first half when North Central's Tyler Swierczek made a basket that sparked an 11-2 run for the guests that gave the Cardinals a 23-18 lead with four minutes left in the opening half. North Central continued to maintain a lead as NCC led by eight points at halftime with a 32-24 lead.

Richardson led Wheaton at halftime with nine first-half points. Hedrick had four points and a team-high four rebounds. VanderWoude (PICTURED LEFT) also collected four points. Swierczek led all players in the first half with 10 points, while NCC's Ethan Helwig and Drew Gaston each had five rebounds.

The Cardinals struck early in the second half as a dunk by Swierczek and a three-pointer by Helwig gave the guests their largest lead of the game with a 13-point bulge at 37-24 with 19:15 left in the game. A VanderWoude layup with 17:35 left in the second half sparked a 10-2 Thunder run. VanderWoude scored seven od Wheaton's 10 points in the run that capped off by an old-fashioned three-point play from Hedrick that trimmed the NCC lead to 41-38 with 15:35 left in the game.

The Cardinals led 54-49 with 10 minutes left in the game with Neibch made a layup that started nine unanswered points for Wheaton as the Thunder regained the lead at 58-54 with 7:15 left in the game. North Central responded with its own 9-0 run to take a 63-58 lead with 4:30 left in the contest.

Richardson responded with seven unanswered points to give Wheaton a 65-63 lead with 2:54 left in the contest. Richardson continued to be a force for the Thunder as he scored 12 of Wheaton's 15 points in the final 4:30 if the game. His old-fashioned three-point play with 2:54 left in the game gave Wheaton a lead as he turned NCC's 63-62 lead into a 65-63 Thunder lead.

North Central's Terrance Moncrief made a layup on the Cardinals' next possession to tie the game at 67-67 with 1:56 remaining. Richardson responded with a layup to give Wheaton a 69-67 lead with 1:30 left in the game. North Central missed a three-pointer on its next possession and Martin collected the rebound for Wheaton. Richardson was fouled on the ensuing Wheaton possession and made one of two free throw attempts to extend the hosts' lead to 70-67 with 50-seconds left. North Central missed a jumper on its next possession and the Cardinals fouled Schultz on Wheaton's next possession and he made one of two free throw attempts to extend the Thunder lead to 71-67 with 26-seconds remaining on the clock. Neibch made a pair of free throws in the closing seconds to secure Wheaton's 73-68 win.

Richardson scored 19 of his 28 points in the second half, adding four rebounds. VanderWoude scored 17 of his 21 points in an impressive second half effort. Helwig and Moncrief each scored 11 second-half points for the Cardinals.

Moncrief led North Central with 18 points and three assists. Swierczek and Helwig each scored 14 points. Helwig grabbed a game-high eight rebounds, with seven rebounds apiece for Swierczek and Drew Gaston.

Prior to tonight's tipoff the program honored its five seniors for "Senior Night": Cody Appleton, Nathan Clark, Hedrick, Schultz and Cooper Starks.

Note Worthy: Richardson concludes the CCIW's regular season schedule as the conference's scoring leader (CCIW games only) with 373 points in 16 CCIW games…Richardson is the 16^th Wheaton player to lead the CCIW in scoring dating back to 1947, and his effort marks the seventh time a Wheaton player has led the league in scoring in the past 13 seasons…his 373 points in CCIW play is the most points in conference play since Wheaton's Aston Francis scored 512 points in 2019…Martin concludes his debut season as the CCIW's assist leader with a league-best 63 assists in 16 conference games.