Wheaton, Ill. - The Wheaton Thunder men's basketball team earned a hard-fought 59-58 victory against St. Norbert College in the First Round of the 2013 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament on Saturday night. Wheaton advances to play University of St. Thomas next Saturday in the NCAA Tournament Second Round, following St. Thomas' 91-62 win over Aurora tonight in the First Round.

St. Norbert held a narrow lead for much of the first 11 minutes of tonight's game, including a 17-15 lead for the Green Knights with nine minutes left in the opening half. The visitors out-scored Wheaton 8-2 over the next three minutes to increase the St. Norbert lead to 25-17. The guests put an 11-2 run together to close out the first half, as the visitors led Wheaton 38-24 at halftime.

St. Norbert head coach Gary Grzesk said of his halftime conversation with his team, "We told the guys it would be a 40-minute game. Wheaton is too good of a team to just go away. You knew they were going to make some shots and turn it up defensively."

Wheaton coach Mike Schauer noted of his team's first half, "I thought we rushed stuff and were playing a little too quickly. This team, although we were here [in the NCAA Tournament] last year, the majority of our guys now didn't play significant minutes. I thought we were a little anxious, instead of settling down to get the right guys good shots."

Wheaton gradually cut the deficit over the first 12 minutes of the second half and a basket by Nathan Haynes at the 10:15 mark gave Wheaton its first lead since the opening half. Schauer notes of Hayne's basket, Nate's layup put us up one, and once we wrestled back into contention, I felt we had wrestled momentum back and I felt pretty good about where we were." Haynes registered another field goal with 8:10 left in regulation to increase Wheaton's lead to 47-44, capping a 23-6 scoring surge by the Thunder over the first 12 minutes of the second half.

Wheaton's largest lead of the second half was seven points, which occurred twice, the final time coming in a 56-49 lead with 3:30 left in the game. Wheaton led 57-53 when St. Norbert's Brandon Gries made a pair of free throws to trim the Wheaton lead to 57-55 with 44-seconds remaining. Wheaton sophomore Brayden Teuscher cooly made a jumper with 13-seconds remaining in regulation to increase the Wheaton lead to 59-55.

St. Norbert's Jeremy Paprocki countered with a three-pointer with 13-seconds remaining to cut the Thunder lead to 59-58. St. Norbert fouled Wheaton on the ensuing possession and the Thunder missed the free throw giving St. Norbert a final chance to earn the win. A three-point attempt by the Green Knights with one-second remaining hit left edge of the rim and fell away for the Wheaton victory.

Wheaton head coach Mike Schauer noted of his team's rally, "At halftime, I told our team that this game felt like the type of game you could come back and win. They made everything in the first half [50 percent on field goals] and we made nothing [35 percent on field goals]. Particularly when you're the home team and that happens, it doesn't sustain itself. The home team eventually makes shots in its own building. A couple things happened. Our defense improved. They really knocked us back on our heels in the first half, but I thought we returned the favor in the second half. Mike [Kvam] hit a three to bring us within six, and [St. Norbert] called a timeout. You could feel the momentum change."  

Haynes scored 16 points for Wheaton with a game-high 11 rebounds. Haynes noted after the game, "You have got to give a lot of credit to our fans. Mike [Kvam] got them going by hitting his threes. Our football team is out there yelling and going crazy and it got everyone else involved. I think our team really feeds off that because we play so well at home and it's so much easier to play well when you have an atmosphere like we had tonight."

Sophomore Brayden Teuscher scored 16 points and Kvam made four three-pointers on the night to score 12 points off of the Thunder bench. Peter Smith added eight points with four rebounds.

Brandon Gries led St. Norbert with 17 points and six assists. Andrew Schwoerer scored 12 points for the Green Knights and Jeremy Paprocki scored eight points.

St. Nortbert Coach Gary Grzesk noted after the game, "It was a great environment for our kids to play in. We've played in some hostile environments and it was a great atmosphere for the kids to play in. I thought in the first half, we were really clicking on all cylinders. We did a good job, paid attention to the scouting report, paid attention to details, and we shot the ball really well in the first half. In the first eight or nine minutes of the second half, Wheaton took the wind from our sails with their aggressiveness on the defensive end. We struggled to score. I think we had nine points in the first 11 minutes of the second half. Part of that was us, but Wheaton's defense turned it up a couple notches. And I'm proud of our guys for hanging in there. They weathered the storm and stayed in the game. We had one of our best outside shooters with a chance to win at the end. That's all you can ask for."

Wheaton shot 44.7% (21-47) from the field, with 27.3% (6-22) from three-point range and 61.1% (11-18) at the free throw line. The Green Knights posted a 38.3% (18-47) field goal percentage, with 35.7% (5-14) from behind the three-point arc and 85% (17-20) at the free throw line. Wheaton out-rebounded St. Norbert 34-25, with 10-6 advantage on the offensive glass. The hosts' edge on the offensive glass helped the Thunder to an 11-4 advantage in second-chance points. Wheaton had 12 turnovers, while St. Norbert had six as the Green Knights owned an 18-7 advantage in points off of turnovers.