Wheaton loses in second round
The Wheaton College men’s basketball team had its season ended on Saturday in a 68-58 loss at University of St. Thomas. Wheaton ends the year 21-7, while St. Thomas (27-1) advances to play Calvin in the tournament’s third round next Saturday.
Sophomore guard Brayden Teuscher led the Thunder with 16 points. Peter Smith scored 11 points, with four rebounds. Tyler Peters added 10 points, with six rebounds and Michael Berg scored nine points, with six rebounds.
Wheaton shot 46.7 percent from the field, with 41.7 percent from 3-point range and 61.1 percent at the free-throw line.
St. Thomas was 44.2 percent from the field, with 25 percent from behind the arc and 71.8 percent from the free-throw line. St. Thomas outrebounded the Thunder 30-28, with a 10-9 edge on the offensive glass.
Tommy Hannon led St. Thomas with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Will DeBerg scored 13 points and Zach Riedman contributed 11 points and 4 assists.
St. Thomas had a strong lead for the majority of the first half. The Tommies led 37-19 with 3:10 remaining in the first half. The Thunder responded by scoring the final six points of the first half to trim the hosts’ lead to 37-25 at halftime. The Tommies forced the Thunder into 13 first-half turnovers and the hosts shot 14 of 17 at the free throw line in the first half to key the St. Thomas advantage in the first 20 minutes.
St. Thomas led the Thunder 59-44 with 5:27 remaining in regulation when the Thunder responded with nine unanswered points to trim the Tommies’ lead to 59-53 with 3:12 left in the second half. St. Thomas scored the next three points to increase the lead to 62-53, but a Peter Smith three-pointer cut the UST lead to 62-56 with 2:25 remaining in regulation.
The two squads traded two-point field goals on each of the next possessions for each team. Wheaton missed field goal attempts on each of its next three possessions and the Tommies made free throw down the stretch to earn the win