WHEATON, Ill. – Wheaton outscored Augustana 16-9 over the last seven minutes of the first half Tuesday and continued to pull away in the second stanza, defeating the Vikings 78-58 in a CCIW Tournament semifinal at King Arena. The host Thunder move on to the championship game with a 12-0 record, while Coach Steve Schafer's club finishes the year 7-5.
 
The teams traded baskets early. Cade Alioth hit a three-pointer at the 14:16 mark of the first half to put Wheaton up 9-6, but Augustana countered with three Carter Duwa (Pleasant Valley HS, Bettendorf, Iowa) free throws after he was fouled on a trey attempt. Consecutive threes by Luke Anthony gave the Thunder a 15-9 advantage before two Justin Bottorff (Quincy Notre Dame HS, Quincy, Ill.) buckets and a Matt Hanushewsky (Hersey HS, Arlington Heights, Ill.) jumper tied it again at 15-all.
 
Daniel Carr (Regis Jesuit HS, Highlands Ranch, Colo.) tipped in his own miss with 8½ minutes left in the half to give the Vikings their first lead at 17-15. They still led 18-16 after Bottorff split a pair of free throws, but an Alioth dunk tied it and Nyameye Adom had a steal and layup to put Wheaton ahead for good.
 
Eli Considine hit back-to-back threes to finish off a 12-0 Thunder run and the hosts led 28-18 at the four-minute mark. Bottorff had a pair of field goals and Duwa a deuce and a trey as Augustana pulled to within 32-27, but an Adom bucket in the final ten seconds gave Wheaton a 34-27 advantage at intermission.
 
Carr opened the second half with a three-pointer, but Tyson Cruickshank answered with one of his own, sparking an 8-0 run that took the lead to 42-30. Another Carr triple cut the deficit to single digits for the last time, but the Thunder responded by scoring the next seven points.
 
A Cruickshank three with 11:12 to play extended the margin to 20 (61-41) and his jumper with 7½ minutes left gave Wheaton its biggest lead of the night at 69-43.
 
Bottorff and Duwa each scored 17 and Bottorff added eight rebounds, three steals and a block. Carr narrowly missed his ninth straight double-double, finishing with 13 points and nine boards. Alioth had game highs of 21 points and 10 rebounds. Adom added 20 points and six assists and Cruickshank 16 points and seven rebounds.
 
The Vikings shot .404 (23-57) from the field, .364 (4-11) from three-point range and .800 (8-10) from the foul line. The Thunder connected on 30 of 57 (.526) field goals, nine of 23 (.391) three-pointers and nine of 13 (.692) free throws. Wheaton led 39-26 on the glass and committed 13 turnovers to Augustana's 12.