Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton Thunder women's basketball team pulled ahead to an early lead and never trailed on Wednesday night in a 67-50 victory at home against North Park (11-10/4-6 CCIW). Wheaton improves to 17-5 overall and 8-4 in CCIW play.
Wheaton led the Vikings 9-2 in the first four minutes of tonight's matchup. The Thunder led 22-11 with 7:40 remaining in the first when the Vikings utilized an 11-0 run to force the only tie of the game with a 22-22 score with 6:00 left before halftime. Wheaton then responded by scoring the final 10 points of the opening half to own a 32-22 halftime lead. Wheaton's Ellie Zeller scored 13 first-half points and Katie McDaniels scored 10 points in the opening half as the duo contributed 23 of Wheaton's 32 points in the first half.
The Thunder maintained a double-digit lead for the majority of the second half. Wheaton's largest lead of the game was a 19-point advantage with a 60-41 edge for the Thunder with 4:45 remaining in regulation.
McDaniels led all players with 20 points, shooting 9-of-14 from the field. The Thunder freshman also contributed four assists. Zeller scored 18 points, with an 8-for-14 effort from the field. Senior Maris Hovee grabbed 15 rebounds, with eight points, six blocked shots. Hovee also grabbed three steals and contributed three assists.
Wheaton shot 46.8% (29-62) from the field, with 28.6% (2-7) from three-point range and 70% (7-10) at the free throw line. North Park posted a 30.6% (19-62) field goal percentage, including 42.1% (8-19) from behind the three-point arc and 66.7% (4-6) at the free throw line. The Thunder out-rebounded North Park 40-36, however, the Vikings held a 13-11 edge on the offensive glass.
Hannah Rehfeldt scored 18 points for the Vikings, draining six three-pointers. Nicole Kruckman and Soly Roman each scored 10 points for the Vikings. Dominikque Williams grabbed eight rebounds and Roman collected six boards for the visitors.
NOTES: Wheaton's Maris Hovee is now in second place on Wheaton's career rebounds list with 793 rebounds, passing the 779 boards recorded by Janet Ahlborn (1990-94) with tonight's performance…Hovee's 257 rebounds this season is the second-highest single-season total in school history and she needs eight caroms to surpass the school-record of 264 rebounds collected by Jill Trenz in 2005-06…Katie McDaniels' 20 points tonight gives her 329 points on the year, which is the fourth-highest single-season total by freshman in program history…with her six blocked shots tonight, Hovee now has 205 in blocks in her Thunder career and she is one of only three players in school history with 200 or more career blocked shots.