Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton Thunder women's basketball team used an impressive second-half performance to top Illinois Wesleyan 72-46 on Wednesday night in Wheaton's King Arena. Wheaton out-scored the Titans 47-20 in the second half to secure the win against the Titans (8-11, 2-6 CCIW).
Wheaton is now 17-2 on the season and 7-1 in CCIW play. The Thunder, ranked 16th in the D3hoops.com top-25 poll, will travel to North Central (18-1, 7-1 CCIW) on Saturday for a 5:00 p.m. tipoff with the Cardinals. Saturday's game against the #23-ranked Cardinals will be for first place in the CCIW standings.
Wheaton's Chantal Meacham made the first basket of tonight's contest against IWU when her three-pointer gave the Thunder a 3-0 lead in first 1:20 of the contest. The Titans went on to score the next 10 points to take a 10-3 lead with 14:00 remaining in the opening half. Wheaton gradually cut into the Titans' lead for the remainder of the first half as IWU led the Th8under 26-25 at halftime.
Wheaton held a three-point lead at 37-34 with 14:00 minutes left in regulation when a basket by Thunder junior Hannah Considine sparked an 18-3 scoring surge for the Thunder. Wheaton's huge run extended the hosts' lead to 55-37 with 7:48 remaining in the game and the Thunder remained in control for the 72-46 win.
The Thunder shot a 47.1% (24-51) field goal percentage in the game. In the first half the hosts shot 20% (1-for-5) from three-point range and improved to 60% (6-for-10) behind the arc in the second half. Wheaton had a 70.8% (17-for-24) effort at the free throw line. Wheaton out-rebounded the Titans 41-29 as each team gathered 10 rebounds. IWU shot 30.2% (16-for-53) from the field, including 15.4% (2-for-13) from three-point range and the Titans posted a 63.2% (12-for-19) free throw percentage.
Katie McDaniels led the Thunder offense tonight with a game-high 14 points. She also distributed five assists with four rebounds. Ellie Zeller scored 11 points with five rebounds, two assists and two steals. Considine tallied a "double-double" with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Meacham scored nine points with three three-pointers and Moriah Reeves scored eight points.
Molly McGraw led Illinois Wesleyan with 11 points and five steals. Shelby Gray scored eight points and Gabby Weber added six points for the guests.