Wheaton, Ill. - The No. 8 ranked Wheaton College men's basketball team hosted No. 3 Illinois Wesleyan on Saturday night in a battle of top-10 teams. Wheaton out-scored the Titans 39-26 in the second half as the Thunder earned the 67-62 victory. Wheaton improves to 9-1 overall and 3-1 in CCIW play. The Thunder hand the Titans their first loss of the season as Illinois Wesleyan is now 7-1 overall and 1-1 in conference play.

All-American Nyameye Adom led the Thunder with 24 points tonight, adding five rebounds with two assists. Forward Cade Alioth recorded a 'double-double' with 15 points and 18 rebounds.Tyson Cruickshank scored 13 points, with four rebounds, and two assists. Luke Anthony scored seven points with four rebounds. Collin Uveges scored five points with three assists.

Wheaton shot 35.1% (20-for-57) from the field in the game, including 21.4% (6-for-28) from three-point range. Illinois Wesleyan posted a 40% (24-of-60) field goal percentage, including an 18.8% (3-for-16) effort behind the three-point arc. Wheaton shot 80.8% (21-for-26) at the free throw line and the Titans had a 73.3% (11-for-15) effort at the charity stripe. Wheaton out-rebounded the Titans 41-36, including a 9-6 edge on the offensive glass. Wheaton advantage in offensive rebounding helped the Thunder to a 13-5 advantage in second chance points.

Matthew Leritz led the Titans tonight with 21 points, 14 rebounds, and four assists. Luke Yoder and Cory Noe each scored 12 points for the guests. Yoder collected six rebounds, with five boards for Noe. Peter Lambesis scored 10 points with six rebounds.

Illinois Wesleyan held an eight-point lead at 22-14 with 8:00 left in the first half when Anthony drained a three-pointer for the Thunder to cut the Titans' lead to 22-17. IWU responded after Anthony's trey with an 11-4 scoring run to take a 33-21 lead with 2:15 remaining before halftime. The guests led by 13 points at 36-23 with 1:04 left in the first half when Adom made a three-pointer and Cruickshank made a layup in the final 30-seconds as Wheaton trimed the Titans' double-digit lead to eight points at 36-28 at the halftime intermission.

Adom had a team-high nine first-half points and Alioth grabbed nine rebounds in the first 20 minutes. Cruickshank scored eight points for the hosts in the first half. Leritz led the Titans with12 points and 10 rebounds in the first half. Lambesis and Yoder each scored eight points for IWU.

The Titans scored the first three points of the second half to increase their lead to 39-28 in the first two minutes of the half. Alioth made a made pair of three-pointers pointers and Adom added a layup as Wheaton's eight unanswered points trimmed the guests lead to 39-36 with with 15:20 remaining in the second half. The Titans led 46-43 when Alioth dished the ball off to Cruickshank who drained a three-pointer to tie the game at 46-46 with 9:40 remaining in the game.

Adom made a pair of free throws with 8:02 remaining in the game to give Wheaton a 52-51 lead, the first lead for the hosts since the first two-and-a-half minutes of the game. Illinois Wesleyan's Lucas Heflen made a three-pointer with 6:48 left in the game to give the Titans a 54-53 lead. It would be the final lead of the game for the guests.

Wheaton regained the lead at 55-54 with 6:30 left in the game on a pair of free throws by Adom, and Alioth extended the lead to 57-54 with a slam dunk that brought the pro-Wheaton crowd to its feet at 5:40. Wheaton never relenquished the lead following that sequence.

The Thunder led 63-60 when Noe made a layup to trim Wheaton's lead to 63-62 with 24-seconds remaining in regulation. Adom was fouled shortly after the Thunder successfully managed to inbound the ball and he made two free throws with 19-seconds remaining to increase his team's lead to 65-62. Noe attempted a three-pointer for the guests with less than 10-seconds remaining and his shot missed and the long rebound was collected by Adom with three-seconds remaining. Adom was fouled and he made both free throws to give Wheaton the 67-62 lead with three-seconds remaining.

The Wheaton defense clamped down on the Titans late in the game as Illinois Wesleyan shot 18.2% (2-for-11) in the final eight minutes of the game, including 14.3% (1-for-7) from three-point range. Adom scored 15 points in the second half and added four rebounds. Alioth tallied 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds. The senior shot 5-of-7 from the field in the second half and he was 2-for-3 behind the three-point arc. Adom and Alioth combined to score 28 of Wheaton's 39 second-half points. Leritz scored nine points with four rebounds in the second half for the Titans.