Wheaton, Ill. - On a night where the Thunder women's basketball team honored its departing players prior to tip-off, it was the Wheaton septet of seniors that helped the Thunder finish off a season sweep of Illinois Wesleyan and catapult Wheaton into a first place tie atop of the CCIW standings. Wheaton outscored the Titans by ten points in the second and third quarters and never led by less than six points in the final quarter in posting an 80-72 victory over the Titans. Both teams entered the game 9-4 in conference play with Wheaton moving into a tie with North Park at 10-4 while dropping the Titans back to 9-5. Wheaton moves to 17-6 overall on the season.

After a cold-shooting first quarter, Wheaton shot over 40% in each of the final three quarters to finish the game at 44.3% (27-61) from the field and 35.3% (6-17) from the three-point line while posting an impressive 83.3% (20-24) showing at the free throw line. Illinois Wesleyan shot 41.3% (26-63) from the field but struggled from deep, shooting 7-24 (29.2%) and made just 13-of-21 (61.9%) from the charity stripe. Wheaton dominated the boards, owning a 42-33 edge including 11 offensive boards.

After surrendering the first four points of the night, Wheaton bounced back with a 12-4 run to take a 12-8 lead. Illinois Wesleyan answered back by scoring five unanswered points over the final 67 second to take a 13-12 lead at the end of the quarter. The Titans continued their run, scoring the first four points of the second quarter en route to building their largest lead of the night at 22-16 with 6:20 to play in the half. Following a Thunder time out, Wheaton ran off seven-straight points capped by a Hannah Williams three-pointer to take a 23-22 lead.

Wheaton would extend the run to 19-6 seven-straight points from Hannah Williams and had a chance to push the lead into double figures to close the half, but a turnover led to a Titan three-point play that cut Wheaton's halftime lead to 35-31.

Five straight Thunder points followed an early Titan basket as Wheaton pushed the lead to a game-high seven points at 44-37 on a Hannah Frazier lay-up with 6:24 to play in the quarter. Illinois Wesleyan worked the lead back down to one with 2:41 left in the quarter, but Wheaton closed the quarter with nine points including five from Zoe Nordling to post a 55-45 lead heading into the final stanza.

An early lay-up by Jill Berg pushed Wheaton's lead to a game-high 12 points before the teams traded baskets through the middle of the quarter. Wheaton would lead by as many as 16 points on a lay-up by Hannah Swider with 4:29 to play before the Titans used a quick eight-point spurt to cut the lead in half at 70-62 with 3:35 left. Jordan Myroth ended the Titan run with a lay-up and Kirsten Madsen followed another Titan basket with a three-pointer to push the lead back into double figures at 75-64.

Another five unanswered by Illinois Wesleyan brought the Titans to within six points, but they would get no closer as Wheaton answered from the free throw line to push the lead back to 11 in the final minute before closing out the 80-72 victory.

Samantha Munroe and Kendall Sosa led the Titans with 20 points apiece. Hannah Williams led the Thunder with 18 points along with a career-high eight assists. Jill Berg tallied 14 points with a game-high nine rebounds. Hannah Frazier also grabbed nine boards to go with 12 points and Hannah Swider finished with 11 points.

Wheaton will be back in action on Wednesday night with a 7 pm tip-off at Carroll University before returning home to King Arena to close the regular season with a 5 pm tip-off against North Central on February 22.