ELMHURST, Ill. - In front of the largest home crowd of the season, the No. 21 Elmhurst University men's basktball team took down Wheaton College, 72-60, inside R.A. Faganel Hall on senior day.

Elmhurst (19-5, 11-4 CCIW) took a balanced offensive attack coupled with stifling defensive stops to take down the Thunder (6-17, 5-9 CCIW) in the home finale for the Bluejays in the 2023-24 season.

Eight Bluejays scored five or more points in the game, highlighted by 16 points from Jonathan Zapinski, who also tallied a game-high eight rebounds, and 12 points from Tagen Pearson. Quinn Pemberton dished out a team-high four assists, while four different Bluejays recorded blocked shots including Zapinski, Pearson, Pemberton, and Ocean Johnson.

Nick Schiavello of Wheaton led all scorers with 23 points on 8-for-18 shooting from the field, including five three-pointers, while also assisting on five made shots for the Thunder.

With both teams trading makes early, the Bluejays took the lead off a Johnson trey, and never gave it back as the Bluejays grew their lead to as much as 15 in the first half, leading by nine at the halfway mark.

The Thunder kept fighting, cutting the lead to six after a four-point play from Noah Hendrick. But, the Bluejays found their rhythm again, bursting out to bring the lead back to double-digits. Though the Thunder were able to cut it back to single digits two separate times in the final five minutes of the game, Elmhurst continued to knock down clutch shots and free-throws to take home the 12-point senior night win.

UP NEXT

Elmhurst will wrap up the regular season next Wednesday, Feb. 14, heading to Waukesha, Wis. for a 7:00 p.m. CT tipoff against Carroll University.

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