Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton Thunder men's hosted Augustana College on Wednesday night for a CCIW matchup in King Arena. The Thunder earned an 81-73 overtime victory against the Vikings tonight.
Freshman Soren Richardson led the Thunder with a game-high 23 points, adding six rebounds. Senior Nick Schiavello scored 16 points with 11 rebounds and three assists. In tallying double digits in both points and rebounds, Schiavello recorded his second-consecutive "double-double". Kyle Neibch scored 13 points for the hosts. Connor Braun tallied nine points, with four rebounds, three assists, and two blocked shots. Daniel Garza scored nine points off the Thunder bench. Nate Sock scored eight points with five rebounds, and two assists.
The Thunder shot 43.6% (24-of-55) from the field tonight, including 41.9% (13-of-31) from three-point range. Neibch and Richardson each made four three-pointers. Augustana recorded a 32.9% (25-of-76) field goal percentage, including 33.3% (9-for-27) behind the three-point arc. The hosts shot 80% (20-for-25) at the charity stripe tonight, while Augustana had a 73.7% (14-of-19) effort at the free throw line. The Vikings out-rebounded the Thunder 46-38, including a 16-4 advantage on the offensive glass.
Wheaton scored the first six points in the game on three-pointers by Schiavello and Neibch. The hosts led 12-7 with 12 minutes remaining in the first half. The Vikings responded with 12-consecutive points to give the guests a 19-12 lead with nine minutes left before halftime. Wheaton chipped away at the Vikings' lead as Augustana led 35-33 at halftime.
Richardson led all players with 13 points in the first half. Schiavello tallied nine points with five rebounds in the opening half. Dani Romero led Augustana in first-half scoring and Chase Larsen grabbed 10 rebounds.
The second-half was a tightly contested affair that saw three lead changes and the game was tied seven times. The Vikings led 54-51 with 7:28 remaining in the second half when Neibch drained a three-pointer to tie the game at 54-54. The Vikings missed a basket on the ensuing possession and Richardson grabbed the defensive rebound and made a basket with 6:45 left in regulation to give the hosts a 56-54 lead, Wheaton's first lead of the second half. On the next Vikings' possession Richardson blocked a shot and grabbed a rebound. On the Wheaton possession that followed, Schiavello found Braun for a layup to increase the Thunder advantage to 58-54 with 6:20 remaining in the game.
The Vikings made a three-pointer in their next possession to cut Wheaton's lead to 58-57 with 5:59 left in the second half. On Wheaton's next possession, Neibch made a three-pointer and was fouled. He made the free throw to convert the four-point play as Wheaton's lead increased to five points and 62-57 with 5:31 remaining in the second half.
Braun made a trey with 4:05 left in the second half to give Wheaton a six-point bulge at 65-59 with 4:05 left. The Vikings closed out the half with a 9-3 run to setup a 68-68 tie at the end of regulation. Augustana's Anthony Cooper made a layup with 16-seconds left to tie the game. A blocked Thunder shot attempt in the closing seconds sent the game to overtime.
Cooper started the overtime session with a three-pointer that gave the Vikings a 71-68 edge. Richardson responded with a three-pointer to tie the game at 71-71 with 2:45 remaining in OT. A floater by Sock gave the Thunder a 73-71 lead with 1:56 remaining. Cooper made two free throws 10 second later to tie the contest at 73-73 with 1:46 left.
A layup by Richardson with 1:18 left in OT gave Wheaton the lead for good as the basket made the score 75-73 in favor of the Thunder. The Vikings missed a pair of shot attempts in their next possession, and Braun collected the rebound and was fouled. The Thunder grad student made both free throws to increase the hosts' lead to 77-73 with 42-seconds remaining. Schiavello made four free throws in the final 30 seconds of OT to close out the game for the 81-73 Thunder victory.
Wheaton remains at home on Saturday for its next CCIW matchup. The Thunder entertain Millikin in King Arena for a 7:15 p.m. tipoff against the Big Blue.