On Saturday afternoon/evening, the Alma College Men's Basketball team hosted perennial power Wheaton College (Ill.) in a non-league contest at Art Smith Arena. After a close first half, the visitors pulled away in the second frame and earned a 85-65 road win.

With the defeat, the Scots are now 0-7 on the season, while Wheaton improved to 6-3 on the 2014-15 campaign. The contest will be remembered for a 56 minute delay at the 15:02 mark of the first half when Alma Fr. F Doug Bradfield (Mason/Mason) broke the rim of the basket on a monstrous dunk.

"We have to keep perspective on the big picture," said Alma Head Coach Sam Hargraves. "The first half was outstanding. We really competed against a team that could easily win our league. Obviously disappointed with how we shot the ball in the second half and we didn't fight hard enough defensively to get back in it. They shot the ball much better versus our zone than they did last game and credit to them for that piece.

"We're a team that is still figuring things out and learning about ourselves. We have four more non conference games to continue that process."

Wheaton jumped to an early lead but Alma went ahead 7-6 at the 16:46 mark when Jr. G Scott Nikodemski (Rockford/Rockford) hit a lay-up. The Scots also led 13-11 before an 11-4 run gave them a 24-15 advantage on a lay-up by So. G Chase Fairchild (Rockford/Rockford) at 10:18.

Alma took a 30-22 lead when Jr. F DJ Beckman (Shelby/Shelby) hit a three-pointer with 8:47 remaining in the half. However, a 7-0 Thunder run closed the gap to 30-29 with six minutes even left in the frame.

The game was tied at 36-36 before Wheaton was able to take three point leads twice and a four-point advantage with 39 ticks of the clock remaining. But, two free throws by Nikodemski with nine seconds left in the half cut the Scots deficit to 44-42 at the halftime break.

Nikodemski gave the Scots a 45-44 lead 29 seconds into the second half on a three-pointer and the two teams were deadlocked at 48-48 at the 17:48 mark. However, the bottom dropped out on the Scots at this point, as Wheaton went on a 13-0 run to lead 61-48 with 13:31 remaining in the contest.

The Thunder increased their run to 30-3 (over a 9:52 period of time) as they took a commanding 78-51 lead at the 7:50 mark of the frame, and it would prove to be an uphill climb from that point forward for the Scots.

Alma didn't quit and played hard all the way to the final buzzer, outscoring the Thunder 14-7 over the duration of the contest. However, it was too little, too late, and the road team was able to walk off the floor with the 85-65 victory.

Nikodemski led all Scots scorers with 16 points, while DJ Beckman added 10 in the loss. Nikodemski had a team-high four assists, while So. F Tyler Edwards (Swartz Creek/Swartz Creek) paced Alma with five total rebounds.

The Scots next play on December 19 when they are at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh for a 8:00 p.m. start. Alma then competes the next day at Ripon College in a 4:00 p.m. tipoff.