Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton men's basketball team (12-0), ranked third in this week's D3hoops.com Top-15 Poll, defeated Augustana 78-58 on Tuesday night in the CCIW Tournament Semifinal. Tonight's victory against the No. 4 seeded Vikings (7-5) advances the No. 1 seed Thunder to Friday night's CCIW Tournament Final in King Arena. Wheaton will host No. 2 seed Illinois Wesleyan (7-1) at 7:00 p.m. in Friday's Final. The Titans defeated Elmhurst (7-3) 75-65 in tonight's other semifinal in Bloomington, Illinois.
Tonight's victory in the semifinal round marked Wheaton's first CCIW Tournament Semifinal win since a 66-55 win against Augustana in the CCIW Tournament Semifinal of the 2014 CCIW Tournament. The victory tonight marked the fourth CCIW Tournament Semifinal win in program history (2009, 2012, 2014 and 2021).
Cade Alioth, Nyameye Adom and Tyson Cruickshank formed a formidable offensive trio for the Thunder tonight. Alioth led all scorer with 21 points tonight on 9-of-12 shooting from the field. The senior also grabbed 10 rebounds for his seventh "double-double" this season. Nyameye Adom scored 20 points on 9-of-16 shooting from the floor, adding six assists.
Cruickshank shot 5-of-8 from the field, including 3-of-5 behind the three-point arc in scoring 16 points tonight. The junior collected seven rebounds with three assists. Luke Anthony scored nine rebounds with five rebounds and two assists. Anthony and Cruickshank each recorded two steals for the Thunder. Eli Considine scored six points with seven rebounds. Considine was 2-for-2 from three-point range.
The Thunder shot 52.6% (30-57) from the field tonight, including 39.1% (9-of-23) from three-point range. Augustana posted a 40.4% (23-of-57) field goal percentage, including 36.4% (4-of-11) behind the three-point arc. Wheaton shot 69.2% (9-of-13) at the free throw line tonight, and Augustana registered an 80% (8-of-10) effort at the charity stripe. Wheaton out-rebounded the Vikings 39-26, including a 6-3 edge on the offensive glass for the hosts.
An Alioth dunk tied the game at 18-18 with 7:18 remaining in the first half. The senior's dunk started a 12-0 Thunder run that extended the hosts' lead to 28-18 with 4:05 remaining in the game. Considine made a pair of three-pointers at the conclusion of the run to help Wheaton pull ahead of the guests. The Thunder led the Vikings 34-27 at the halftime intermission.
Alioth scored 11 first-half points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field. Adom scored nine points with three assists in the opening half.
Augustana's Daniel Carr made a three-pointer in the Vikings' first possession of the second half to trim Wheaton's lead to 34-30. Cruickshank made a three-pointer with 19:09 left in the second half to start a string of eight unanswered points for the Thunder. Cruickshank made two three-pointers in the run as Wheaton extended its lead to 12 points at 42-30 with 17:38 remaining in the game. Wheaton's largest lead of the game of a 26-point bulge at 69-43 with 7:34 remaining in the game.
Cruickshank scored 14 points in the second half. He shot 5-of-6 from the field in the half, including 3-of-4 from three-point range. Adom scored 11 points in the final 20 minutes and Alioth scored 10 points with seven rebounds in the half.
Justin Bottorff and Carter Duwa each scored 17 points to lead Augustana's offense tonight. Daniel Carr scored 13 points for the guests. Carr led the Vikings on the glass with nine rebounds and Bottorff added eight rebounds.