Wheaton, Ill. (2/17) – The Wheaton Thunder women's basketball team defeated Elmhurst 61-46 on Saturday in Wheaton's King Arena. Wheaton never trailed in today's game to improve to 17-6 overall. Elmhurst falls to 6-18 overall and 2-11 in league play.
With today's win, the Thunder secured a share of its third consecutive College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Championship. Wheaton is now 12-1 in league play and one game ahead of Illinois Wesleyan 11-2 in the CCIW standings. Wheaton can earn outright possession of the conference championship by defeating Carthage on Tuesday night at 7:30 PM in King Arena. Today's win also assured that the Thunder will be the top seed and host of next weekend's CCIW Tournament. The Thunder will play the tournament's fourth- seeded team on Friday Feb. 23 at 6 PM and the second seed will play the third seed at 8 PM. The CCIW Tournament Championship Game will be played at 2 PM on Saturday Feb. 24 to determine the league's automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament.
On Wheaton's “Senior Day”, it was fitting that the three leading scorers were its seniors: Brittany Cooper, Elizabeth Fox and Emily Carwell. Cooper scored 12 points, with five rebounds and four assists. Fox tallied a “double-double” with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Carwell scored a season-high 10 points on 4-for-5 shooting from the field. Jill Trenz scored nine points with eight rebounds and five blocked shots. Sophomore Kathleen Fidelia scored eight points and grabbed seven rebounds.
Brittany Bobruk led Elmhurst with 14 points and six rebounds. Lyndsie Long scored 10 points, with nine rebounds. Candice Sutton and CeCe Larson each scored eight points as Sutton added four assists.
Wheaton shot 41.5% (22-53) from the floor, with 30.8% (3-13) from three-point range and 61.9% (13-21) at the free throw line. Elmhurst recorded a 22.7% (17-75) field goal percentage, with 31.3% (5-16) from three-point range and 63.6% (7-11) at the charity stripe. Wheaton out-rebounded the Bluejays 55-41; however, Elmhurst held a 16-11 edge on the offensive glass.
