Wheaton, Ill. (12/1) – The Thunder women's basketball team took a late lead and never relinquished it on Friday night in a 49-46 victory against Calvin College in the opening game of the CCIW-MIAA Classic, in King Arena. Calvin (3-1) is ranked ninth in the most recent D3Hoops.com Top 25 poll. Wheaton improves to 4-3 on the season. Calvin will face Carthage on Saturday at 1 PM and the tournament will conclude on Saturday when Wheaton faces defending National Champion Hope College in a 3 PM tip-off. The Calvin-Carthage game will be broadcast at http://www.calvin.edu/sports and the second half of the Wheaton-Hope game will be broadcast on WETN at 88.1 FM in the Wheaton area and on the internet at www.wetn.org.
Calvin led 20-16 at halftime, however Wheaton scored the first six points of the second half to take a 22-20 lead with 18:30 remaining in the second half. From that point, the two teams battled back and forth with nine lead changes and two ties. Wheaton led 46-43 with nine-seconds left in regulation when a Thunder shot fell short, however, Jill Trenz was there for the offensive rebounded and put the ball into the basket to give Wheaton a 48-43 lead. Calvin made a three-pointer with five-seconds left to cut the Thunder advantage to 48-46, however, Elizabeth Fox made a free throw with two seconds left and a Calvin three-point attempt fell short as time expired to secure the win for the hosts.
Brittany Cooper led the Thunder with 16 points on 7-for-8 shooting from the field. Cooper grabbed five rebounds and added four assists. Trenz scored 13 points, with 10 rebounds with her third “double-double” of the year in points and rebounds. Fox added seven points and four assists.
All-American Lisa Winkle led Calvin with 12 points, and seven rebounds. Kristi Brummel scored 10 points, while Marcia Harris added nine points, with eight rebounds.
Wheaton shot 39.6% (21-53) from the field, with 30% (3-10) from three-point range and 40% (4-10) at the free throw line. Calvin recorded a 35.3% (18-51) field goal percentage, with 13.3% (2-15) from three-point range and 66.7% (8-12) at the free throw line. Each team collected 36 rebounds, with 11 offensive boards.
In the second game of the night Hope defeated Carthage 65-51 . Stacy Warsen led Hope with 11 points and six rebounds, including five offensive boards. Lindsay Lange scored 10 points, with eight rebounds and Ellen Wood also scored 10 points, with three blocked shots. Katie Jarger led Carthage with 16 points and six rebounds, while Shana Liebeman added 12 points.
