PICTURED ABOVE: Katie McDaniels scored a game-high 21 points and was a perfect 11-for-11 from the free throw line in Wheaton's 72-60 win over Elmhurst on Saturday night.

Wheaton, Ill. - A strong second half defensive effort from the Thunder women's basketball team pushed Wheaton a 72-60 victory over Elmhurst on Saturday night at King Arena. Wheaton held Elmhurst scoreless for a five minute stretch late in the second half, allowing Wheaton to pull away for its seventh straight victory. Wheaton improves to 20-2 on the season with the victory and 10-1 in CCIW play. The loss drops Elmhurst to 13-9 overall and 6-5 in conference action.

Wheaton shot a solid 49.1% (26-53) and made only two of its eight three-point attempts. Wheaton was stellar from the free throw line, shooting 94.7% (18-19). Elmhurst shot 39.2% (20-51) from the field and was buoyed by an 8-for-20 (40%) performance from the three-point line. The Bluejays were also solid at the charity stripe, hitting 12-of-15 attempts for an 80-percent clip. Wheaton won the battle on the boards with a 31-29 rebounding edge including despite being outrebounded on the offensive glass 13-11.

Wheaton reversed a recent trend of slow starts by scoring the game's first six points and jumping out to a 16-9 lead just over seven minutes into the game. Wheaton would lead by as many as seven points at three times in the first half but the Bluejays hung around and used a 5-0 spurt late in the half to tie the game at 32. Two free throws from Katie McDaniels with 27 seconds remaining in the first half pushed Wheaton to a 34-32 halftime edge.

Hannah Considine (PICTURED RIGHT) opened the second half with a three-point play to give Wheaton a five-point lead but Elmhurst came storming back and took its first lead of the game at 42-41 five minutes into the second half. After a short back and forth, A quick 7-0 run punctuated by a Considine three-pointer gave Wheaton the lead for good at 55-48 midway through the half.

Elmhurst pulled within five at 61-56 with 7:02 to play before the Thunder held the Bluejays scoreless for the next 5:36 to pull ahead 67-56 with 1:26 to play. Elmhurst's field goal drough would last another 67 seconds before a three-pointer with 19.5 seconds made it a 70-60 Wheaton lead. A press break lay-up by McDaniels added the final two points to Wheaton's 72-60 win.

Katie McDaniels led all scorers with 21 points to go with five assists, four rebounds, four steals and a clean zero turnovers. McDaniels made all 11 free throw attempts. Ellie Zeller scored 14 points to go with four rebounds. Hannah Considine finished with 10 points, 4 rebounds and two blocks. Jennifer Berg scored nine points with four rebounds and two blocks off the bench. Hannah Lipman led the Bluejays with 15 points.

Note Worthy: With her 21 points tonight, Katie McDaniels moved past Laura Markee (1985-89) and Mary Beth Welsh (1977-81) into 33rd on the all-time career scoring list with 642 career points...with her 11 free throws tonight, McDaniels moved past Lindsey Brenneman (2008-12) into eighth place on the all-time career free throws list with 234 career made free throws.