Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton Thunder women's basketball team secured outright possession of the 2016-17 CCIW Championship on Tuesday night with a 76-67 victory at home against Illinois Wesleyan (17-8, 12-4 CCIW). Wheaton improves to 21-4 on the season and 14-2 in CCIW play.

Wheaton will be the top seed in this weekend's CCIW Tournament in King Arena. No. 1 Wheaton will entertain No. 4 Augustana on Friday at 7:00 p.m. in the tournament's second semifinal game. The CCIW Tournament will begin at 5:00 p.m. on Friday as No. 2 Illinois Wesleyan faces No. 3 seed Elmhurst. Friday's winners will play each other at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday in the 2017 CCIW Tournament Championship Game, with Saturday's winner earning the conference's automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Tournament.

Lawson led the Thunder with 22 points tonight, shooting 2-of-2 behind the three-point line. Katie McDaniels contributed 19 points, five assists and three steals for the Thunder. Senior Chantal Meacham scored nine points, making a trio of three-pointers. Meacham also grabbed six rebounds and dished out three assists.

Maggie Dansdill scored eight points with four rebounds for the Thunder. Ellie Zeller tallied seven points off the Thunder bench and Devin Kyler scored six points. Kyler grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds, dished out three assists and blocked three shots. Jill Berg scored three points off the Wheaton bench and she contributed four rebounds, three assists and three blocked shots.

Wheaton posted a 43.5% (23-of-62) field goal percentage, including 46.7% (7-of-15) from three-point range. Illinois Wesleyan shot 34.3% (23-of-67) from the field tonight, including 16.7% (3-of-18) behind the three-point arc. Wheaton out-rebounded the Titans 43-40 and IWU held a 10-8 advantage in offensive rebounding.

Molly McGraw led the Titans with 23 points and six rebounds. Maddie Merritt scored 20 points and grabbed four rebounds for the guests. Rebekah Ehresman contributed 16 points with 10 rebounds, four assists and four steals.

Wheaton jumped out to an 8-2 lead tonight as Lawson drained a three-pointer on the opening possession of the game and McDaniels followed with a layup and a three-pointer. The Thunder led by as many as 10 points in the first quarter when the hosts held a 14-4 lead over the first three minutes of the game. The Thunder led 27-16 at the conclusion of the first quarter.

A layup by Zeller with 4:45 remaining in the second quarter gave the Thunder a 35-25 lead. The Titans responded with six unanswered points in 1:10 to cut Wheaton's lead to 35-31 with 3:35 left in the second quarter. The Thunder held a three-point advantage at halftime at 42-39.

Wheaton led the Titans 59-53 at the conclusion of the third quarter. The Thunder held a 61-56 lead with 6:10 left in the game when Merritt made a pair of free throws to cut the hosts' advantage to 61-57. Wheaton built up an eight-point lead three times over the next 3:30, the third time was on a three-pointer by Lawson that gave Wheaton a 72-64 advantage with 2:40 remaining in the game.

McDaniels made one of two free throw attempts to give Wheaton a nine-point bulge at 73-64 with 1:53 left in the contest. Lawson sank two charity shots with 1:32 left in regulation to give Wheaton its largest lead of the game at 12 points in a 76-64 advantage. McGraw drained a three-pointer with 19-seconds left to account for the 76-67 final score.