Chicago, Ill. - The fifth-seeded Wheaton Thunder women's basketball team traveled to fourth seed North Park on Tuesday night for an opening round contest in the 2022 CCIW Women's Basketball Tournament. The Thunder utilized an impressive second quarter performance and a dominant advantage in rebounding to defeat the Vikings 63-54.

Wheaton advances to the CCIW Tournament Semifinals on Friday night with a 7:00 p.m. tipoff at No. 1 seed Millikin. The opening Semifinal game on Friday in Decatur will feature No. 2 seed Illinois Wesleyan against No. 3 Carroll at 5:00 p.m.

Wheaton freshman Annika Richardson led all players with 21 points tonight, shooting 3-for-6 from three-point range. Richardson also grabbed nine rebounds for the guests. Junior Ellie Cassel was outstanding tonight as she scored a career-high 18 points to go with 14 rebounds in registering a 'double-double'. Senior Hannah Swider scored 12 points, with four rebounds. Caroline Sikkink scored 10 points with seven rebounds.

Wheaton out-rebounded the hosts 47-28, including a 12-7 edge on the offensive glass. The guests' edge on the offensive helped Wheaton to a 12-4 advantage in second-chance points. The Thunder posted a 34.8% (16-of-46) field goal percentage, including 33.3% (3-for-9) behind the three-point line. The Vikings shot 32.8% (19-of-58) from the field, including 18.2% (2-for-11) from three-point range. Wheaton shot 82.4% (28-for-34) at the free throw line, while the Vikings had a 77.8% (14-for-18) effort at the charity stripe.

Jayla Johnson led North Park with 17 points, and eight rebounds. Chantel Hariston scored 16 points with four rebounds for the hosts. 

Both team struggled through a sluggish first quarter that saw the Vikings lead 12-5 at the end of the period.

Wheaton rallied with an impressive second quarter, out-scoring the Vikings 26-12. North Park led by four points at 21-17 with 4:08 remaining in the second quarter when Cassel hit a jumper that sparked a 14-3 Thunder run to close out the first half as Wheaton led 3-24 at the halftime intermission. Cassel scored seven of Wheaton's 14 points in the key stretch. 

Cassel scored 11 first-half points, with six rebounds. Richardson tallied eight points with fiv rebounds, while Sikkink scored eight points. Johnson led the Vikings with 11 points in the first half.

The Thunder continued to hold a sizeable lead in the third quarter as Wheaton led by as many as 11 points in the period. The guests led by nine points at the end of the third quarter with a 49-40 Wheaton led to end the period.

North Park made two basket in the first two-and-a-half minutes of the fourth quarter to trim Wheaton's lead to five points at 49-44 with 7:30 remaining in regulation. Richardson was fouled on a three-point attempt with 6:49 left in the game and made all three free throws to extend the Thunder advantage to 52-44.

Wheaton led by five points at 52-47 when North Park had an opportunity to cut the Wheaton lead to two or three points, but Cassel grabbed a defensive rebound with 2:49 remaining on a NPU shot attempt. Wheaton missed a layup on the possession that ensued, but Cassel was there to collect the offensive rebound and the ball was kicked out to Richardson. Richardson was fouled on a made three-pointer with 2:29 left in the fourth quarter, and she made the ensuing free throw attempt to give Wheaton a 56-47 lead. Wheaton shot 7-of-8 at the free throw line in the final minute of the game to secure the 63-54 victory.