Wheaton Box Score
WHEATON, Ill. - The Elmhurst College men's basketball team came up just short in its bid to win the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin's Tournament, falling to Wheaton College 67-63 in the championship game.
Elmhurst (20-7) led Wheaton (24-3) for over 35 minutes, but came up short in the end. After Wheaton hit the opening basket of the contest, the Bluejays built an 11-point first half advantage and carried 33-25 lead into the locker room at halftime.
The Thunder started the second half on a 7-0 run to pull within one, but the Bluejays used a 12-1 run to take a 49-37 lead with 10:33 to play. Elmhurst had a chance to build on the lead after a technical foul was called on the Wheaton bench. The Bluejays were unable to hit either free throw and the lead remained at 12.
Wheaton cut the Elmhurst lead down to to six points (54-48) with 7:23 left. A Robert Strzemp jumper pushed Elmhurst's lead back to eight points, but the Bluejays would go scoreless for the next three minutes as Wheaton chipped the lead down to one with 3:48 remaining. A lay-up by Dustin Bainter with 3:12 to play gave the Bluejays 58-55 edge.
Wheaton's Andy Wiele hit a lay-up with 2:46 to bring the Thunder to within a point. After a turnover by the Bluejays, Wheaton took its first lead of the half on a pair of Jake Carwell free throws. Elmhurst had a chance to tie the contest, but missed the front end of a one-and-one. Wheaton missed a shot on its next possession, but the Bluejays turned the ball over on the rebound, leading to a dunk by Carwell with 41 seconds left on the clock. Another Bluejay turnover led to a pair of free throws by Kent Raymond, giving the Thunder a 63-58 cushion with just 30 seconds left in the contest.
A Brent Ruch lay-up cut the Thunders' lead down to three points with 17 seconds left, but Ben Panner hit a pair of free throws to push the lead back up to five. Strzemp hit a 3-pointer with four seconds remaining, but Raymond sealed the win with a pair of free throws for the Thunder.
Elmhurst, ranked 20th in the latest D3hoops.com poll, finished the game shooting 47.2 percent (25-of-53) from the field, including 35.7 percent (5-of-14) from downtown. Wheaton shot 46.0 percent (23-of-50) from the floor, including 38.9 percent (14-of-16) from beyond the arc.
Elmhurst outrebounded the Thunder 31-25, including a 9-5 edge on the offensive glass.
Ruch led the Bluejays in the loss with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Strzemp added 13 points while Ryan Burks, Zack Boyd, and Mike McCurdy added seven points apiece.
Raymond led Wheaton with 24 points, despite shooting just 6-of-18 from the field. He hit 9-of-10 from the charity stripe. Andy Wiele finished with 18, with 12 points coming in the second half. Ben Panner added 15 points.
"We played very well for the majority of the contest, but we couldn't get buckets in the end when we needed them," said Elmhurst head coach Mark Scherer. "Wheaton is a final-four caliber team, and I hope we'll be able to join them in the NCAA Tournament. "
The loss by the Bluejays means their fate will be decided by the NCAA committee. Elmhurst will hope to receive on of the 18 available at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament. The tournament field and bracket will be announced on Monday, March 2, at 10:00 a.m. The field will be announced live at www.ncaa.com
