Bloomington, Ill.- The Thunder No. 16 ranked Wheaton Thunder men's basketball team picked up an impressive 79-58 victory at Illinois Wesleyan (5-4, 3-1 CCIW) on Saturday in a key CCIW matchup. Wheaton improves to 8-2 overall and is 2-1 in CCIW play.

Junior Nick Schiavello scored a career-high 21 points to lead five Wheaton players that scored in double digits this afternoon. Schiavello was 8-for-12 from the field, including 5-for-8 from three-point range. He grabbed five rebounds, with two assists and two blocked shots in an impressive overall outing.

Grad transfer TJ Askew scored 14 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in his first "double-double" at Wheaton. Tyson Cruickshank scored 14 points with five assists, five rebounds and three steals. Andrew Williams came off the bench to score a career-high 14 points, with six rebounds and three assists. Eli Considine scored 10 points with five rebounds and two steals.

Wheaton shot 45.6% (26-of-57) from the field today, including 42.4% (14-of-33) behind the three-point line. Illinois Wesleyan posted a 41.2% (21-of-51) field goal percentage, including 40% (4-for-10) from three-point range. The Thunder shot 86.7% (13-of-15) at the charity stripe and the Titans had 70.6% (12-of-17) effort at the free throw line. Wheaton impressed on the glass tonight, out-rebounding the Titans 36-27 including an  11-8 edge on the offensive glass.

The Titans scored the game's first five points. Wheaton then countered with a 14-4 run to take a 14-9 lead with 12:55 remaining in the first half and never trailed in the remainder of the game. Wheaton's largest lead of the first half was an 11-point bulge at 34-23 with 4:50 remaining before halftime. The guests led IWU 37-31 at halftime.

Cruickshank led all players in first-half scoring with 10 points. Askew added nine points in the first half and he grabbed a game-leading seven rebounds in the first 20 minutes. Williams also scored nine first-half points, with three rebounds and two assists off the bench.

Wheaton built on its lead with a strong second half of play. Wheaton scored nine unanswered points with about eight minutes left on three-consecutive three-pointers to give Wheaton a 24-point lead, its largest lead of the game, at 71-47 with 6:48 remaining in the game. Schiavello made two of the consecutive three-pointers and Williams added a trey.

Schiavello led all players in second-half scoring with 15 points in the final 20 minutes. Considine added seven points and Cruickshank distributed four of his five assists in the second half.
Wheaton is off until its first game at the Stevens Tech Holiday Tournament on Dec. 29 at 5:00 p.m. in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Note Worthy: Thunder head coach Mike Schauer moved into a tie for third place on Wheaton's victories list for a head coach, tying Ed Coray with 227 career wins as Wheaton's coach in his 14 seasons at his alma mater…Cruickshank moved into a tie for fourth place on Wheaton's career three-pointer list with 195 trifectas, tying Ronn Smith (1991-95).