Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton men's basketball team earned hard-fought 71-68 victory at home against Carthage College (10-4, 2-3 CCIW) on Monday night in King Arena. Tonight's game was originally schedule for Saturday, however, was rescheduled for tonight due an unfavorable weather forecast on Saturday. Wheaton improves to 10-4 overall and 4-1 in CCIW play.

Nyameye Adom led the Thunder with a team-high 20 points and he grabbed six rebounds. Luke Anthony scored 18 points, making four three-pointers.

Tyson Cruickshank contributed 14 points, shooting 4-of-6 from three-point range.  Cade Alioth added 12 points. Cruickshank and Alioth each grabbed a team-high eight rebounds for the Thunder. Gavin Hawkins added five points and six rebounds. Collin Uveges distributed a game-high five assists and Anajuwon Spencer had six rebounds with four assists.

Wheaton posted a 41% (25-of-61) field goal percentage in the game, including 38.5% (10-for-26) from three-point range. Carthage also shot 41% (25-of-61) from the field, with a 33.3% (5-of-15) behind the three-point arc. The Thunder shot 84.6% (11-of-13) at the free throw line and Carthage shot 61.9% (13-of-21) at the charity stripe. Wheaton out-rebounded the Red Men 40-39, with a 14-13 edge on the offensive glass for Carthage.

The game was tightly contested in the opening 15 minutes, with six ties and five lead changes in that span. The Thunder led 27-26 with 4:55 remaining in the first half when Adom made a three-pointer, followed by a Cruickshank trey 39 seconds later. Adom's trifecta ignited a 10-4 Wheaton run to close out the first half as Wheaton led the Red Men 37-30 at the halftime intermission.

Wheaton held a definitive lead over the first eight minutes of the second half. The largest Thunder lead of the game was a 13-point bulge 56-43 with 12:50 remaining in the game.

Carthage's Jordon Kedrowski responded with a three-pointer with 12:34 left in the game to spark a 9-0 run for guests as the Red Men trimmed Wheaton's lead to 56-52 with 9:30 left in the contest. Adom made a layup followed by a pair of free throws to extend Wheaton's lead to eight points at 60-52 with 7:34 remaining in the second half.

Carthage again responded with a run as the guests out-scored Wheaton 9-1over a two-minute span to tie the game at 61-61 with 5:12 remaining in the game.

The Thunder held a narrow one-point lead at 67-66 with 2:57 remaining in the game when Adom converted a layup to extend Wheaton's advantage to 69-66. Carthage's Sean Johnson made one of two free throw attempts with 2:45 remaining in the game to trim Wheaton's lead to 69-67. Anajuwon Spencer dished off the ball to Cruickshank who made a layup at the 2:31 mark to give Wheaton a four-point lead at 71-67.

Carthage's Crishawn Cook made one of two free throw attempts with 2:00 remaining in the game as Wheaton lead 71-68. Neither team scored in the final 1:59 of the game as Kedrowski's three-point attempt in the closing seconds bounced off the rim. The ball was recovered by Adom to secure the Wheaton win.

Kedrowski led Carthage with 24 points and three assists. Brad Perry scored 14 points and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds. Fillip Bulatovic scored 13 points with five rebounds. Cook grabbed nine rebounds for guests.

Wheaton travels to Augustana on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. for a key conference matchup with the Vikings.