PICTURED ABOVE: Katie McDaniels scored a game-high 29 points in Wheaton's 88-84 loss to Illinois Wesleyan on Saturday night.

Wheaton, Ill.- Despite erasing double-digit leads twice in the second half, the Wheaton women's basketball team fell 88-84 at the hands of the Illinois Wesleyan University Titans. Wheaton rallied from deficits of 12 and 14 points to cut the score down to one possession but ran out of time in the final surge. With the loss, Wheaton finishes the regular season witha  record of 19-6 overall and 9-5 in CCIW play. Illinois Wesleyan will enter the conference tournament with a record of 17-7 and 11-2 in the CCIW. Wheaton and Illinois Wesleyan will meet again next Friday night at 5 PM in the semifinals of the CCIW Tournament, which will be hosted by Carthage College.

Wheaton shot 40% (28-70) from the field including 6-11 (54.5%) on three-point attempts. Wheaton was 22-33 (66.7%) on free throw attempts. The Titans shot 49.2% (29-59) from the field and made just one of nine three-point attempts but were 29-41 (70.7%) from the charity stripe.

After allowing the first four points of the game, Wheaton tied the game at six and worked into a back and forth affair until the game was tied at 14 with 12:15 remaining in the first half. Illinois Wesleyan then opened up an eight point lead over the next four minutes. Wheaton was able to close the half strong and work the lead back to 41-38 on a Melodie Yu jumper in the closing seconds of the first half.

The Titans opened the second half on a 7-0 run to push the lead into double figures for the first time eventually pushing the lead to 58-46 at the 13:10 mark. Wheaton responded with a 13-2 run over the next three and a half minutes sparked by a Chantal Meacham (PICTURED LEFT) three-pointer. After a free throw exchange, the Titans went on a 10-0 run to push the lead to 11 and eventually to 14 at a 79-65 with 3:36 to play.

A three-pointer by Moriah Reeves (PICTURED RIGHT) jumpstarted another Wheaton run that cut the lead to four on a Katie McDaniels jumper. with 1:45 to play. Maria Panaggio's three-pointer with 21 seconds left cut the Titan lead to three but Wheaton would get no closer and fell 88-84.

Katie McDaniels led all scorers with 29 points, which moved her past Jill Trenz and into third place on the freshman scoring list. McDaniels was 11-16 from the free throw line. Hannah Considine and Maria Panaggio each finished with 12 points. Lexi Baltes led the Titans with 21 points, Colleen McMahan scored 15 and Katy Seibring added 13 points. Wheaton won the rebounding battle 45-39 with a 16-8 edge on the offensive glass.