Bloomington, Ill. - Timing proved to be everything for the Thunder women's basketball team on Wednesday as the Thunder led for just 21 seconds of the second half. Hannah Frazier broke a 59-59 tie by splitting a pair of free throws with 21.6 seconds to play and Kristi Demski added two more with 10 seconds to left as Wheaton rallied from an 11-point second half deficit to knock off Illinois Wesleyan 62-59. The victory knocks Illinois Wesleyan from its first place tie with North Park and dropped the Titans to 6-2 in conference play, one game ahead of Wheaton at 5-3. Both teams are now 12-5 overall. Wheaton will turn the corner and start the second half of conference action on Saturday with a trip to Carthage College for a 5 pm tip-off.

Trailing 11-8 after one quarter and 16-12 four minutes into the second quarter, Illinois Wesleyan came roaring back to finish the first half on a 14-5 run and take a 26-21 lead into halftime. That run extended to 19-5 as Kendall Sosa scored five straight points to open the third quarter and stake the Titans to a 31-21 lead. Hannah Swider stopped the run with a lay-up but Sosa connected on another three-pointer on the ensuing possession to push the lead to a game-high 11 points. Riley Brovelli answered to Frazier free throws to keep the lead at 36-25 before three-pointers by Hannahs Frazier and Swider cut the lead down to 36-31.

A three-pointer by Kirsten Madsen and a Jacqueline San Jule lay-up later in the third quarter brought Wheaton within one at 40-39, but the hosts answered with six straight points to push back out to a 46-39 lead with 2:17 to play in the third quarter. The jumper by Sosa would prove to be the final basket of the quarter for Illinois Wesleyan as Wheaton closed the quarter on a 7-0 run and pulled even at 46-46 on a jumper by Jordan Myroth with seven seconds left in the third quarter.

As they did in the third quarter, the Titans opened the fourth quarter with five straight points to lead 51-46, but again Wheaton methodically reeled the Titans back in, pulling even again on a three-pointer by Hannah Williams with 3:08 to tie the score at 55. Wheaton would tie the game two more times down the stretch, evening the score at 57 and 59 behind lay-ups by Frazier, the second tying the game with 54 seconds to play. After a Titan turnover, Frazier split a pair of free throws and then stole the ball on the ensuing Titan possession, eventually setting up two free throws by Kristi Demski with 9.9 seconds left. A last second jumper by the Titans was no good, giving Wheaton its marquee conference victory to date.

Wheaton finished the game shooting 33.9% (21-62) from the field and 32.1% (9-28) from the three-point line while struggling to a 57.9% (11-19) clip at the charity stripe. The Titans shot 41.9% (26-62) but struggled from deep, hitting just three-of-16 (18.8%) three-point attempts. The Titans were 4-5 at the free throw line.

Kendall Sosa finished the game with a 23 points to lead all scorers. Kirsten Madsen led Wheaton with 15 points including four three-pointers. Hannah Frazier tallied 14 points and seven rebounds and Hannah Williams finished with 10 points. Hannah Swider scored eight points to go with six rebounds.