Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton College men's basketball team earned a 75-61 victory against Cornell College (Iowa) on Wednesday night in King Arena.  Wheaton improves to 9-0 on the year and is currently ranked ninth in the D3hoops.com Top-25.

Tonight's contest was the final game of a four-game homestand for the Thunder and the last home contest in a string of nine games that saw the Thunder play eight of those games in King Arena. The Thunder will travel to the Twin Cities for a two-game trip this weekend with action at Northwestern College (Minn.) on Friday and at North Central University (Minn.) on Saturday.

Cornell scored the first eight points in tonight's game over a span one and a half minutes. Wheaton responded with 16-unanswered points over the next six minutes as the Thunder took a 16-8 lead with 12:55 remaining in the first half and the Thunder never trailed for the rest of the game. The hosts led the Rams 41-33 at halftime.

The Thunder led 54-42 with 14:20 remaining in the game the hosts increased their lead to 64-42 with 11:10 remaining in the game thanks to 10 unanswered points to give Wheaton its largest lead of the night.

Junior guard Tyler Peters led Wheaton with a game-high 26 points on 10-for-15 shooting from the field and four steals. Nathan Haynes dominated on the glass with a career-high 16 rebounds and he added 11 points. Sophomore Peter Smith scored 14 points, with five assists and four blocked shots. Junior Tad Fisher scored nine points, with three assists and five rebounds. Freshman Joel Smith scored five points with five rebounds.

The Thunder recorded a 45.8% (27-59) field goal percentage, with 40.9% (9-22) from three-point range and 63.2% (12-19) at the free throw line. Cornell shot 37.9% (22-58) from the field, with 30% (6-20) from behind the three-point arc and 73.3% (11-15) at the charity stripe. Wheaton out-rebounded the Rams 37-36 and each team collected nine offensive boards.

Joey Guth led Cornell with 20 points and seven rebounds. Reggie Greenwood scored 11 points, with four assists and four rebounds. John Harth scored nine points, with a team-high four rebounds.