The Golden Flyers led 46-30 at halftime and Nazareth’s biggest lead of the game was a 21-point advantage at 65-44 with 14:23 remaining in the second half. The Golden Flyers led 74-62 with 4:18 left in regulation when Wheaton put together a 14-3 scoring run to take a 77-76 lead, its first lead of the game, with 38-seconds left in the second half. Nazareth’s Rayvon Higdon made a three-pointer to give the Golden Flyers a 79-77 lead with 26-seconds left in regulation. Thunder senior Johnnie Standard made a layup with nine-seconds left in the second half to tie the game a 79-79. Nazareth missed a layup in the final 10-seconds that would have given the Golden Eagles a late lead, as the game went to overtime.
In overtime Wheaton led 86-85 when freshman Ben Panner drained a three-pointer to give the Thunder an 89-85 lead with 1:15 remaining in the overtime. Junior John Mohan made two free throws to extend the Thunder lead to 91-85 with 27-seconds left in the game. Wheaton shot 3-for-3 from the field in the overtime.
Standard tied his career-high with 21 points, eight rebounds, two blocked shots and a team-high five assists. Mohan scored 20 points in his first game of the season with the Thunder, adding four assists. Sophomore Andy Wiele scored 18 points on 7-for-10 shooting from the field, with nine rebounds and four assists. Panner scored 16 points, with three field goals from three-point range, Michael Fiddler added 11 points, with seven rebounds, four steals, three assists and two blocked shots.
The Thunder shot 55.4% (31-56) from the field, with 40% (8-20) from three-point range and 71.9% (23-32) at the free throw line. Wheaton was without All-American guard Kent Raymond who missed the game with an injury.
Joe Canori of Nazareth was the game’s leading scorer with 27 points, making four three-point shots. Cory McAdam scored 18 points, with seven rebounds, 13 assists and four steals. Higdon added 15 points, with five steals. Tyler Smith scored 12 points and grabbed five rebounds and Jeff DeHimer added 10 points and three steals.
Nazareth shot 50% (33-66) from the field, recorded a 40.9% (9-22) three-point field goal percentage and shot 73.7% (14-19) at the free throw line. Wheaton out-rebounded the Golden Flyers 34-32, however, Nazareth held a 9-8 advantage on the offensive glass.