Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton Thunder men's basketball team earned a 73-49 victory against North Park University (5-9/0-3 CCIW) on Wednesday night inside Wheaton's King Arena. Wheaton, ranked 20th in this week's D3hoops.com Top-25 poll, improves to 11-3 on the year and 1-2 in CCIW play.
Junior forward Nathan Haynes paced Wheaton with a career-high 24 points to lead all scorers and he added a game-high 13 rebounds, with four steals and two blocked shots. The "double-double" in rebounds and points for Haynes was his sixth of the season. Brayden Teuscher scored 14 points, while Tyler Peters added eight points. Peter Smith added nine points and seven rebounds for the hosts.
Wheaton shot 46% (23-50) from the field, with 30.8% (4-13) from three-point range and 71.9% (23-32) at the free throw line. North Park posted a 36.4% (16-44) field goal percentage, with 20% (2-10) from three-point range and 65.2% (15-23) at the free throw line. Wheaton out-rebounded the Vikings 35-29, including an 11-8 edge on the offensive glass. North Park's 16 turnovers helped Wheaton to a 24-7 advantage in points off of turnovers.
Aaron Weaver led North Park with 19 points and six rebounds. Zach Cassita scored seven points for the Vikings and Ryan Hyrn added six points.
Wheaton held a three-point lead at 14-11 with 13:30 remaining in the first half. Wheaton opened up its lead thanks to an 18-2 scoring run that gave the hosts a 32-13 lead with 3:05 remaining before the halftime intermission. Haynes contributed eight of the 18 points in Wheaton's scoring surge. The Thunder led 39-16 at halftime.
The Thunder remained in control throughout the second half as Wheaton's largest lead of the game was a 26-point bulge, which happened twice in the second half with the last occurrence coming in 73-47 lead with 28-seconds left in the game.