Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton Thunder men's basketball team earned the season sweep of the conference series with Elmhurst (11-10, 4-8) on Saturday as the Thunder picked up an 82-70 victory against the Bluejays in King Arena. Wheaton is now 14-6 on the year and 7-4 in CCIW play.
Ricky Samuelson led five Wheaton players in double-digit scoring as he tallied a game-high 21 points. Junior Kobe Eichelberger scored 15 points with nine rebounds and two steals. Sophomore Spencer Peterson tallied 11 points with five rebounds.
Sophomore Jay Spencer registered his second career "double-double" with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Spencer added two blocked shots. Junior Aston Francis scored 10 points, with six assists. Fellow junior Luke Peters added six points, with eight rebound. Peters also distributed six assists and recorded two steals.
Elmhurst led early with a 12-5 advantage with 12:20 remaining in the first half. The Thunder used a 16-6 run to gain its first lead of the game at 21-18 with 6:15 remaining before halftime. Francis drained a three-pointer to conclude the first half as the Bluejays led 27-26 at halftime.
A layup by Elmhurst's Jeremy Ireland to open the second half extended the Bluejays' lead to 29-26. A tip-in basket by Peterson sparked a 7-3 Thunder run to give the hosts a five-point advantage at 34-29 with 16:45 remaining in the game.
The Thunder led 41-37 with 13:00 left in regulation when a layup by Eichelberger was the first of seven unanswered points for Wheaton to extend the hosts' lead to 48-37. A three-pointer by Zack Kvam with 11:54 remaining in the game capped off Wheaton's 7-0 run. Wheaton built up its lead to as many as 19 points at 69-50 with 5:50 remaining in the game. The Thunder maintained a double-digit lead for the majority of the final five minutes of the game to secure the win.
Wheaton shot 42.2% (27-of-64) from the field, including 25.9% (7-for-27) from three-point range. Elmhurst posted a 41.1% (23-of-56) field goal percentage, including 26.3% (5-of-19) behind the three-point arc. Elmhurst shot 76% (19-of-25) at the free throw line and Wheaton shot 56.8% (21-of-37) at the charity stripe. Wheaton out-rebounded the guests 44-41, including 14-7 advantage on the offensive glass. Elmhurst committed 16 turnovers with Wheaton taking advantage to out-score the guests 19-7 in points off turnovers.
Wheaton travels to 14th ranked Illinois Wesleyan on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. for a key CCIW matchup with the Titans.