ELMHURST, Ill. – The Elmhurst men's basketball team advanced to the semifinals of the CCIW Tournament by defeating Wheaton College 71-58 at R.A. Faganel Hall.
Elmhurst, ranked 22nd in the latest D3hoops.com poll, improved to 21-5 on the season while ending Wheaton's season at 15-11.
The Bluejays never trailed in the contest and held off a second-half rally from the Thunder to pull away for the wire-to-wire victory. Elmhurst scored the game's first six points and opened on a 14-4 run over the first five minutes to build a quick double-digit lead. Wheaton pulled to within seven points with 9:30 left in the half, but the Bluejays responded with an 11-2 run over the next four minutes to open up a 16-point cushion with 5:30 remaining. The Bluejays led 39-23 with 3:27 left, but did not score for the remainder of the half as Wheaton closed on a 5-0 run to pull to within 11 points (39-28) at the half.
The Bluejays outshot Wheaton 41.9 percent (13-of-31) to 35.5 percent (11-of-31) in the opening 20 minutes of action.
Wheaton quickly jumped back into the contest at the start of the second half. Back-to-back three-pointers from Tyson Cruickshank and Nyameye Adome pulled Wheaton to within five points less than a minute into the half. The Thunder closed the deficit down to three points at 44-41, forcing Elmhurst to burn a timeout with 15:30 left. Buckets from
Jay Militello and
Derek Dotlich pushed the Bluejays' lead back to seven points before Wheaton pulled to within five points at 50-45. Elmhurst answered back with a 6-0 run to push their lead back to double digits with 9:30 left. Wheaton trimmed the deficit down to eight points with seven minutes remaining, but Elmhurst responded with a 10-2 run over the next three minutes to push its lead back to 16 points with 3:24 remaining before closing out the 13-point win.
Elmhurst shot 44.8 percent (30-of-67) from the floor in the win. The Bluejays hit 26.1 percent (6-of-23) from three-point distance while outrebounding the Thunder 46-39. Elmhurst outscored Wheaton 42-26 in the paint. Wheaton finished the contest shooting 31.3 percent (21-of-67) from the floor and just 18.9 percent (7-of-37) from beyond the arc.
Four players reached double figures in scoring for the Bluejays.
Lavon Thomas led the way with 18 points and nine rebounds, finishing one rebound shy of a double-double.
Jay Militello hit 7-of-10 shots from the floor to finish with 15 points. He added five rebounds and three assists in the victory.
Dominic Genco came off the bench to score 12 while
Nick Perry totaled 10 points, five rebounds and four assists.
Jake Rhode added seven points while
Derek Dotlich scored five for the Bluejays.
Wheaton was led by Cruickshank's 20 points and five rebounds in the loss. Adom added 19 points while Gavin Hawkins came off the bench to score eight for the Thunder.
Elmhurst, seeded fourth in the CCIW Tournament, will face the top-seed and tournament host North Central College on Friday, February 28 at 7:00 p.m. Third-seeded Illinois Wesleyan University will face second-seeded Augustana College in the first semifinal at 5:00 p.m.
