Waukesha, Wis. – In another back-and-forth conference battle, the Wheaton College men's basketball team came up just short on the road with a 90-84 defeat at Carroll University on Saturday.
The Thunder drop to 12-7 overall on the season, with a 6-4 mark in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW). The Pioneers improve to 9-11 on the year (4-7 CCIW) with today's result.
Three weeks ago, Wheaton and Carroll went down to the wire in the reverse fixture, as well, with the Thunder emerging with an 85-84 win in King Arena.
Fast forward to this evening's meeting – Wheaton came out firing in the early going and built up a 14-point lead in the opening seven minutes. The visitors scored on six-straight possessions as junior Soren Richardson and freshman Luca Carbonaro sank back-to-back threes, followed by sophomore Devin Martin's jumper to establish a 20-6 lead.
From that point on, Carroll started to slowly whittle away at Wheaton's advantage. A 10-2 run by the home team cut their deficit down to 32-30 with four minutes remaining in the half. A layup and trey by freshman Reid Olson (pictured right) pushed the lead back to seven at 39-32. However, the Pioneers kept fighting back, and a layup in the final seconds put the score at 43-41 in Wheaton's favor heading into halftime. 
The rest of the game was a see-saw battle, as the two teams exchanged the lead 17 times in the second half. Neither side led by more than four points until the final minute of the contest.
Perimeter shooting proved difficult for the visitors in the second half. The Thunder converted just two of 17 attempts from beyond the arc during that period. Despite this figure, the visitors remained neck-and-neck with Carroll all the way to the end. Nine points from Olson and eight points from sophomore Kyan VanderWoude were key contributions.
Richardson sank a jumper and drew a foul for a traditional three-point play to get Wheaton within one point at 85-84. But the Thunder went cold in the last minute of the contest with three-straight misses from long range. Carroll countered by making 5 of 6 free throws to clinch the victory.
In the final stats, Wheaton shot 44 percent from the field, 25 percent from three-point land (8-32) and 67 percent from the free throw line (16-24). The Thunder received 29 bench points, with Olson making an impact with 14 to his credit to go with three rebounds and two assists. VanderWoude was the squad's leading scorer for the second-straight game with 15 points. Freshman Carson Grier notched a double-double of 13 points on 6-10 shooting and a career-high 14 rebounds. Richardson reached double figures in scoring with 11 points and a joint game-best five assists. Martin finished with eight points, six boards, and four dimes, and he was joined on eight points by Carbonaro and Brady Wynja, the latter of whom matched Martin's rebounding tally.
Carroll was most effective down low, as the hosts won the points-in-the-paint category (52-32), as well as the rebounding column (40-37). The Pioneers made 50 percent of their field goals, 29 percent of their threes (5-17) and 84 percent of their free throws (21-25).
Wheaton will stay on the road for its next contest with a trip to No. 12-ranked Illinois Wesleyan University on Wednesday. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. in Bloomington.
