Wheaton wins tournament opener in OT

The Wheaton College men's basketball team defeated Lawrence University 93-83 in overtime on Friday night in a NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament first-round game.

Wheaton will face either UW-Whitewater or Loras College in a second-round game on the campus of UW-Whitewater.

Wheaton (20-7) overcame an 11-point deficit at 5:40 left in the first half to trail just 34-33 at halftime. The Vikings (22-3) led 49-41 with 13:40 left in the second half, when a 10-2 Thunder run tied the game at 51-51 with 9:52 left in regulation. The closing minutes of the second half were back-and-forth.

Wheaton All-America Kent Raymond sent the game into overtime when his 17-foot jumper tied the score at 71-71 with 3.7 seconds remaining in regulation. Raymond scored 13 points in the overtime as Wheaton outscored the Vikings 22-12 in the extra session to earn the victory.

"At certain points tonight I wondered when the Wheaton team that I had seen most of this year was going to show up," Wheaton coach Bill Harris said. "They certainly did show up in the last few minutes of the first half, down the stretch in the second half and in the overtime."

Andy Wiele led the Thunder with 28 points on 12-of-17 shooting from the field and 11 rebounds.

"Andy did a great job down low tonight," Harris said.

Raymond scored 23 points, with 10 rebounds and 6 assists. Ben Panner scored 22 points. Wheaton shot 50 percent from the field, with 46.2 percent from 3-point range and 87.1 percent at the free-throw line.

Ryan Kroeger led Lawrence with 21 points and Andy Hurley added 16 points, with 5 assists.