GAME STATS PICTURED ABOVE- Maris Hovee was named to the George Fox Classic All-Tournament Team.

Newberg, Ore.- Trailing by as many as 15 points in the second half, the Thunder women's basketball mounted a late charge but ultimately fell short in a 53-50 loss at #24-ranked George Fox in the George Fox Classic. Wheaton (1-1) closed the gap to three points in the closing seconds but Wheaton couldn't get a pair of chances in the closing seconds to fall. The Bruins, ranked #24 in the D3Hoops.com preseason poll, won the George Fox Classic.

Despite an early 5-3 lead, Wheaton fell behind early in the game when George Fox used an 11-0 run to open up a 14-5 lead midway through the first half. The Thunder rallied to cut the lead back to fie points at 16-11before the Bruins ran off another 11 unanswered points to open up its biggest lead of the night at 27-11 with 6:05 left in the first half. Wheaton was able to close the half on a 6-2 run to cut the Bruins halftime lead to 29-17.

The Bruins re-upped their lead to 15 points, five minutes into the second half before the Thunder started to chip away at the lead. Wheaton was able to cut the lead back into single digits midway through the half and cut the lead to as close as six at 41-35 with 8:41 remaining.

George Fox pushed the lead back to nine at 44-35 before the Thunder again started to chip away. Wheaton cut the lead back to four at 48-44 with 1:55 to play but the Bruins quickly built the lead back to seve. Layups by Maris Hovee, Hannah Considine and Katie McDaniels helped but the lead all the way down to 53-50 with 14 seconds left. Wheaton forced a Bruin turnover with five seconds remaining and got two shots at the tie but couldn't connect and fell by the score of 53-50.

Wheaton shot just 25.4% (16-63) from the field and the Thunder were 0-11 from beyond the arc. Wheaton was 18-25 (72%) from the free throw line. George Fox shot 30.5% (18-59) from the field and 4-19 (21.1%) from three-point range. The Bruins were 13-21 (61.9%) from the charity stripe.

Hannah Considine (PICTURED RIGHT) led the Thunder with 13 points and nine rebounds. Katie McDaniels scored 12 points and Maris Hovee scored seven points and grabbed seven rebounds while blocking four shots. Hovee's efforts earned her a spot on the George Fox Classic All-Tournament Team.

Wheaton will continue its early season schedule on Tuesday evening when the Thunder travel to Aurora University to face the Spartans at 7:00 PM.