Wheaton College loses by 1 point to University of Texas at Dallas

RICHARDSON, Texas - The Wheaton College men's basketball team lost to the University of Texas at Dallas 63-62 on Saturday night in a NCAA Division III Tournament second-round game.

Wheaton ends the season with a 19-9 record. Texas-Dallas is now 23-5 and advances to the sectional round of the tournament next weekend.

Wheaton led for most of the first half, with its largest lead being 25-16 with 9:41 remaining until halftime. The Comets countered with 7 unanswered points to cut Wheaton's lead to 25-23 with 6:50 left in the first half.

Texas-Dallas took its first lead of the game at 33-31 with 1:11 left before halftime, and the Comets held a 33-32 advantage at the intermission.

Texas-Dallas led for much of the second half, with the Comets' biggest lead of the game coming at 58-52 with 4:06 left in the game. Wheaton outscored the Comets with a 10-3 run, culminating with a 7-foot basket by senior Ben Panner that gave the Thunder a 62-61 lead with 37-seconds left in the game.

Dallas' Jordan Eppink made a shot in front of the basket with six seconds left to give the hosts a 63-62 lead. Wheaton inbounded the ball, and UT-Dallas intercepted the pass and ran out the clock to secure the victory.

"In the locker room after the game tonight I described our team as Rocky Balboa," Wheaton coach Mike Schauer said. "We had a team this year that knew that the way it was going to win games was to keep battling and get up off the mat and keep battling and we did that over and over this year. Tonight was an example of that, unfortunately they (Texas-Dallas) made one more play."

Panner closed out his tremendous Wheaton career with 15 points. Junior John Shackelford made five 3-pointers in scoring 15 points for the Thunder. Tim McCrary scored 11 points, with 9 rebounds and 5 assists. Andrew Jahns (Wheaton North) scored 10 points with 3 assists.