Bloomington, Ill. – The Wheaton Thunder women's basketball team picked up its fifth-consecutive victory on Wednesday night with an impressive 56-54 win at No. 14 Illinois Wesleyan. Wheaton improves to 10-3 overall and remains undefeated in conference play with a 4-0 CCIW record. Illinois Wesleyan is 11-3 overall and is now 4-1 in CCIW play.
"Our defense tonight was pretty good," mentioned Thunder head coach Kent Madsen. "To hold a team of that quality to 54 points is a good defensive night overall." He added, "Down the stretch in the last few minutes, I thought we played well. Devin Kyler hit a big three-pointer, but then we went down and defended well after that basket, and got some good stops. That was huge."
Wheaton led early in tonight's game and never trailed in the first quarter as the Thunder led 19-11 after the first 10 minutes of play. Wheaton led the Titans 21-12 with 7:50 remaining in the second quarter when IWU put together a 10-2 run that trimmed Wheaton's lead to one point at 23-21 with 2:34 remaining in the first half. A Titan three-pointer in the closing seconds of the first half allowed IWU to lead Wheaton 27-26 at halftime, the hosts' first lead of the game.
IWU scored on the opening possession of the third quarter to extend its lead to 29-26 with 9:40 remaining in the period. A basket by Kyler and three-pointer by Hannah Williams gave the Thunder a 31-29 lead with 8:50 remaining in the third quarter. A pair of baskets by Hannah Frazier extended the Thunder lead to 35-29 with 7:35 remaining in the third quarter. Wheaton maintained a lead for the remainder of the third quarter, as the guests led 45-43 at the end of the third quarter.
The Thunder scored the first seven points of the third quarter, capped by a Jennifer Berg three-pointer that extended Wheaton's lead to a nine-point bulge at 52-43 with 6:00 left in regulation. The Titans responded with nine unanswered points to tie the game at 52-52 with 1:17 remaining in regulation.
Kyler drained a clutch three-pointer with 42-secods left in the game to give Wheaton a 55-52 advantage. The Wheaton defense kept IWU from scoring on a pair of shot attempts in the next possession. Frazier grabbed the rebound after the second Titan miss. Frazier made the second of two free throw attempts to give Wheaton a 56-52 lead with nine seconds remaining in the game. IWU's Maddie Merritt made a basket as time expired to account for the 56-54 final score.
Frazier led the Thunder with 16 points and she added five rebounds. Jordan Myroth scored 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field. Myroth also distributed five assists with four rebounds.
Madsen noted of Myroth's performance, "I thought Jordan did a really nice job of posting up and getting buckets right around the basket. The key thing with Jordan, that she does not get enough credit for is that defensively she always defends the top guard for other teams. Tonight, she held their second-leading scorer to two points. I am asking her to do two things – handle the ball and take care of the ball; and to guard the top offensive guard of the opposing team. She frequently shuts down the other guard on a nightly basis."
Kyler scored nine points, with nine rebounds, four assists, two blocked shots and two steals. Jennifer Berg scored seven points with five rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots.
The Thunder shot 43.4% (23-of-53) from the field, including 25% (5-of-20) behind the three-point arc. Illinois Wesleyan posted a 37.9% (22-of-58) field goal percentage, including 33.3% (5-of-15) from three-point range. Each team gathered 35 rebounds in the game as the Titans held a 12-8 edge on the offensive glass.
Wheaton returns home for its next contest as the Thunder hosts Carroll (Wis.) on Saturday at 5:00 p.m. in King Arena.