Spokane, Washington - The Wheaton men's basketball team had an impressive all-around effort on Tuesday night to earn a 92-84 victory at seventh-ranked Whitworth University. Wheaton (7-3) snapped Whitworth's 30-game, regular season winning streak against non-conference opponents with tonight's victory. The Pirates's 30-game streak was the longest in Division III entering tonight's game. 

Tonight's win marked Wheaton's first victory since a top-25 ranked opponent since a 70-67 win against No. 25-ranked North Park on Feb. 11, 2017. The effort was Wheaton's first road win against a nationally-ranked foe since a 62-51 win at No. 17-ranked University of Chicago on December, 3, 2014.

"I was really pleased with our focus and effort", noted head coach Mike Schauer following the win. "We had one of our hardest practices of the year on Monday. I really got after them and they responded. We won the rebounding battle and finished with 15 offensive rebounds. We had four guys score in double figures and Aston Francis finished with nine assists." He concluded, "We will be difficult team to beat if those numbers repeat themselves."

Aston Francis contributed in many facets of the game tonight with a team-high 21 points and a career-high nine assists. The pre-season All-American grabbed six rebounds and added three steals. Sophomore Spencer Peterson scored 19 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field. 

Kobe Eichelberger and Ricky Samuelson each scored 13 points in the win. Eichelberger had a stellar shooting effort of 6-of-7 from the floor tonight. Jay Spencer grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds to lead an impressive Thunder effort on the glass. Spencer added six points with two blocked shots. Zack Kvam contributed eight points off the Thunder bench.

Schauer noted of the performances of sophomores Peterson and Spencer, "Both Spencer and Jay were fantastic tonight. Jay dominated the glass and Spencer made big play after big play including some important free throws. Additionally, Jay had a tip dunk tonight that was pretty impressive."

The Pirates jumped out to an 11-3 lead in the first 3:30 of play tonight. A basket by freshman Cade Alioth sparked a 13-4 run for the Thunder to give Wheaton a 16-15 lead with 12:55 remaining in the first half. 

The Pirates final lead of the first half was an 18-16 advantage with 11:26 left in the opening half when a three-pointer by Francis gave Wheaton a 19-18 lead and sparked a string of 10 unanswered points by the Thunder to give Wheaton a 26-18 lead. The Thunder maintained a lead for the rest of the first half as the guests lead 41-36 at halftime.

Whitworth regained the lead at 45-43 with 18:00 left in the second half. A dunk by Spencer with 17:49 left in regulation tied the game at 45-45 and was the start of a 15-3 Thunder run that extended the guests' lead to 58-48 with 12:00 left in regulation. 

The Pirates chipped away at Wheaton's lead to trim the Thunder advantage to just one point at 78-77 with 3:00 left in the game. Wheaton extended its lead thanks to four free throws by Peterson and a basket by Francis to give the Thunder an 84-77 advantage with 1:11 remaining in the game. Wheaton hung on to earn its 92-84 win.

Wheaton shot 47.8% (32-of-67) from the field, including 24.1% (7-of-29) behind the three-point arc. The Pirates posted a 45.6% (31-of-68) field goal percentage, including 19.2% (5-for-26) from three-point range. Wheaton shot 87.5% (21-of-24) at the free throw line and Whitworth shot 56.7% (17-of-30) at the charity stripe. The Thunder out-rebounded Whitworth 43-37 and the Pirates held a 16-15 advantage on the offensive glass. 

Jordan Lester led Whitworth with 24 points, four assists and five steals. Kyle Roach scored 21 points for the hosts. Garrett Hull tallied 11 points with nine rebounds and Jared Christy scored 10 points with eight rebounds.

Wheaton's two-game trip to the Pacific Northwest concludes on Thursday at George Fox in a 7:00 p.m. (PST) tipoff.