ELMHURST, Ill. – The Elmhurst men's basketball team opened CCIW play with an 83-75 win over Wheaton College to run their overall record to 11-1 on the season.
Elmhurst (11-1, 1-0 CCIW) trailed by as many as nine points in the first half and led for the duration of the second half before sealing the game from the line.
The Bluejays overcame a nine-point deficit in the opening half to build a 38-32 lead at the half. Elmhurst led 10-7 after a three-point play from Will Nixon, but Wheaton (7-5, 0-1 CCIW) ripped off 12-0 run keyed by six points from Brayden Teuscher to open up a 19-10 lead.
Elmhurst slowly chipped away at the Thunder lead, closing to within a point on a pair of occasions. An Erik Crittenden jumper put the Bluejays back in front 33-32 with 2:47 left to play in the half. The Bluejays scored the final five points of the half to lead by six at the break. The Bluejays held Wheaton to without a point over the final 5:14 of the half, forcing five turnovers in the process. The Thunder were also held to without a field goal for the final eight minutes, scoring four points off free throws in that duration.
Wheaton started strong in the second half, opening with a 10-4 run to pull even at 42-42 after a Joel Smith layup. Elmhurst answered back, scoring the next five points to take a 51-46 advantage. Wheaton chipped the lead back down to three-points after a jumper from Teuscher with nine minutes left to play, but Elmhurst answered back with an 8-2 run over the next two minutes, to take a nine-point lead, their biggest of the night, and force Wheaton to burn a timeout.
The Thunder came right back out of the timeout by scoring six straight points to close to within three points after a Joel Smith tip-in. Three straight free throws and an Erik Crittenden layup put the Bluejays back up by eight with just under four minutes left to play. Wheaton brought the deficit back to six, but Crittenden knocked down his seventh bucket of the contest to put Elmhurst in front 73-65 with 1:58 left on the clock.
Smith hit a pair of free throws on Wheaton's next possession to cut Elmhurst's lead back to six with 1:40 remaining, but Kyle Wuest responded with a pair of free throws to bring Elmhurst's lead back to eight at 75-67. The Bluejays were able to seal the game from the foul line, hitting 10 of their final 11 attempts over the last 1:06 to earn the eight-point victory.
Elmhurst shot 51.9 percent from the floor (28-of-54), including 56.0 percent (14-of-25) in the second half. The Bluejays did most of their damage in the paint, scoring 38 points from the lane. Elmhurst's bench also outscored the Thunder's reserves 29-6. Elmhurst also won the battle on the glass, outrebounding Wheaton 33-27.
Crittenden and Wuest paced Elmhurst with 17 points apiece. Crittenden shot 7-of-11 from the floor while Wuest was a perfect 7-of-7 from the foul line. Bryant Ackerman added 13 points, six rebounds and four assists while Will Nixon totaled 10 points and seven rebounds. Pat Coleman finished with nine points and Nathan Rogers scored six.
Wheaton finished the contest shooting 46.0 percent (23-of-50) from the floor, including 28.6 percent (4-of-14) from three-point range.
Michael Berg led the Thunder with 20 points and seven rebounds while Tuescher scored 18. Smith chipped in with 17 points while Caleb DeMoss totaled eight points and six assists.
With the win, Elmhurst snapped Wheaton's 12-game winning streak in the series and toppled the Thunder for the first time since 2009.
Elmhurst travels to Augustana College on Wednesday, January 7.