St. Louis, Mo. - The Wheaton men's basketball team defeated Hope College 71-69 on Friday afternoon at WashU Fieldhouse in the First Round of the 2022 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament. The Thunder guard combination of Nyameye Adom and Tyson Cruickshank combined to score 52 of Wheaton's 71 points in the win.
Wheaton is now 21-6 on the season and advances to the Second Round of the Division III Tournament on Saturday at 5:50 p.m. The Thunder will play Washington University-St. Louis (19-7) in Saturday's contest following a 71-58 victory for the host Bears against Cornell College (Iowa) in Friday's other First Round game.
Hope led by two points at 69-67 with 39-seconds left in regulation when Adom was fouled. He went to the line and made a pair of free throws to tie the game at 69-69. On the ensuing Hope possession, the Wheaton defense forced a Hope turnover on a 10-second violation.
The shot clock was off, and Wheaton had an opportunity to take the lead following the critical Hope turnover. The Thunder had a shot attempt with about six-seconds left that fell short, but the offensive rebound was calmly collected by Wheaton's Cade Alioth. Alioth went up for a put-back basket and was fouled. He made two free throws with 2.9-seconds left to give Wheaton a 71-69 lead. Hope took a quick timeout following its in-bounds pass to setup a shot attempt. The in-bounds pass found a Hope player in about 10 feet away from the far side of the basket. The shot attempt fell short with outstanding Thunder defense on the play as Wheaton emerged with the win.
In addition to Wheaton scoring the final four points of the game in the final 39-seconds, the Thunder closed the game with a 15-5 run in the final 5:20 of the game. The Thunder run began with an Alioth basket. Cruickshank was a force in the closing minutes as he scored seven of Wheaton's 15 points in the run.
Wheaton had a 50-43 lead with 14:00 left in the game. However, Hope put together a 17-2 run over a five-minute span to take a 60-52 lead with 9:00 left in the contest. Wheaton opened the second half with a 9-4 run as the Thunder built up an eight-point lead at 43-35 with 15:00 left in the game.
Cruickshank led all players in the second half with 15 points and six rebounds. Adom had 13 points in the final 20 minutes of the game.
The Thunder had the largest lead of the first half with a five-point bulge at 32-27 with 3:40 remaining in the first half. The largest lead of the first half for the Flying Dutchmen was a four-point advantage at 17-13 with 10:00 left before halftime as Hope took advantage of a string of trips to the free throw line.
Wheaton led Hope 34-31 at halftime. Adom had a team-high 15 points in the first half, grabbing four rebounds. Cruickshank tallied nine points in the opening half.
Adom led the Thunder with 28 points tonight as he shot 9-of-18 from the field and was 10-for-12 at the free throw line. He also grabbed seven rebounds in the win. Cruickshank scored 24 points for Wheaton. Cruickshank also grabbed seven rebounds, with three steals and two assists. Luke Anthony scored eight points, making a game-high three three-pointers. Alioth was the third Thunder player to collect a team-high seven rebounds in the contest.
The Thunder shot 41.4% (12-of-29) from the field in the first half, with a 48.3% (14-of-29) field goal percentage in the second half to total 44.8% (26-of-58) for the game. Wheaton shot 22.2% (4-of-18) from three-point range, and 71.4% (15-of-21) at the free throw line. Hope posted a 42.3% (11-of-26) field goal percentage in the first half and shot 44.8% (13-of-29) in the second half to shoot 43.6% (24-of-55) for the entire game. Wheaton held a 34-30 rebounding edge, including a 5-3 edge for the Thunder on the offensive glass.
Evan Thomas led Hope with a game-high 29 points, and he collected 10 rebounds. Clayton Dykhouse scored 21 points, and TJ McKenzie tallied nine points.