Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton men's basketball team, ranked seventh in this week's D3hoops.com Top-25 Poll, defeated the Carroll Pioneers 70-57 tonight in King Arena. Wheaton improves to 21-3 overall and 13-2 in CCIW play.

Wheaton's final regular season game at Elmhurst on Saturday at 4:15 p.m., will have key implications to the CCIW Championship race and will have CCIW Tournament implications. To secure sole possession of the CCIW Title, and the top seed in next week's CCIW Tournament, Wheaton will need either a Thunder victory at Elmhurst or a North Park loss at Augustana on Saturday. If Elmhurst tops Wheaton, and North Park earns a CCIW road win at Augustana on Saturday, NPU and the Thunder will share the conference title and the Vikings will be the No. 1 seed in the CCIW Tournament 

Wheaton's TJ Askew led all scorers with 19 points tonight, grabbing nine rebounds, with two assists and two blocked shots. Tyson Cruickshank scored 17 points, with 11 rebounds to tally his second "double-double" of the year and eighth of his career. Cruickshank added six assists for the hosts. Andrew Williams scored 12 points, with eight rebounds. Nick Schiavello tallied 12 points, with five rebounds. Eli Considine scored six points, with three steals.

The Thunder shot 42.6% (23-of-54) from the field, including 29.2% (7-of-24) behind the three-point arc. The Pioneers had a 40.7% (24-of-59) field goal percentage tonight, shooting 25% (4-for-16) from three-point range. Carroll shot 71.4% (5-of-7) at the free throw line and the Thunder had a 60.7% (17-of-28) effort at the charity stripe. The hosts out-rebounded the Pioneers 39-34 tonight, including an 11-8 edge on the offensive glass.

The first half tonight was tightly contested as the largest lead in the first 20 minutes for either team was a brief five-point advantage for the Pioneers early in the game. Carroll led Wheaton 31-30 at the halftime intermission. Cruickshank and Carroll's Aaron Wafford each scored 10 points in the first half to lead all players in scoring. Cruickshank added four assists in the opening 20 minutes with five rebounds. Askew scored six points, with five rebounds in the opening half.

The Thunder opened the second half with a 9-2 run to take a 39-33 lead with 16:50 remaining in regulation. The Pios responded with five-consecutive points to cut Wheaton's lead to 39-38 with 15:00 left in the game. Over the next eight-plus minutes neither team had a lead larger than three points. The Pioneers held a two-point lead at 50-48 with 9:35 remaining in the game when Wheaton began a string of 14 unanswered points to open up a 62-50 lead with 3:16 remaining in the game. Askew scored six points in the 14-0 run, including the final three points on a trey with 3:16 remaining in regulation. Schiavello and Williams each contributed four points in the run. The run proved pivotal in securing Wheaton's fifth-consecutive win.

Wheaton out-scored the Pioneers 40-26 in the second half, including an 8-0 edge in fast-break points. Askew scored 13 of his game-high 19 points in the second half. Williams scored 10 points and grabbed five rebounds in the final 20 minutes. Schiavello and Cruickshank each scored seven points in the second half.

Eckahelo Simpson led Carroll with 15 points and five rebounds. Wafford scored just two points in the second half as he tallied 12 points in the game. Josh Hudgens scored 10 points off the Pioneers' bench tonight.