PICTURED ABOVE: Katie McDaniels scored her 1,000th career point in tonight's win as she led the Thunder with 28 points.

Naperville, Ill. – The Wheaton women's basketball team utilized strong play in the second half to earn a 98-85 victory at North Central (10-10, 4-5 CCIW) on Saturday night. Tonight's win was the 15^th-consecutive Wheaton win against the Cardinals. Wheaton is ranked 22^nd in the current Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Division III Top-25 and 23^rd in the D3hoops.com Top-25.

Wheaton is now 15-4 on the year, with a 7-2 record in CCIW play. The Thunder remains tied for first place in the CCIW standings with Illinois Wesleyan at 7-2 as the Titans earned a 75-72 win at Carthage tonight. Wheaton will travel to North Park (14-6, 5-4 CCIW) for a key CCIW matchup on Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m.

Both team played through a sluggish first quarter that saw the Cardinals lead 16-13 through the first 10 minutes of play. North Central continued to build up its lead in the second quarter as the hosts led by as many as 11 points with a 34-23 advantage with 5:00 remaining in the first half. Wheaton countered with a 15-4 run over a span of 3:30 to cut the NCC lead to 39-37 with 1:30 left in the first half. The Cardinals led 45-39 at the halftime intermission.

Wheaton was impressive in the third quarter, out-scoring the Cardinals 32-17. Chantal Meacham made a pair of three-pointers in the first minute of the third quarter to tie the game at 45-45. Wheaton held a 61-59 lead with 3:00 left in the third quarter when Meacham's third three-pointer of the quarter sparked a 10-3 run for the Thunder to close out the quarter as Wheaton led 71-62 at the end of the third quarter. Meacham scored 11 of Wheaton's 32 points in the quarter.

The Thunder led 84-73 with 6:05 left in the game when a layup by North Central's Mayson Whipple started a 10-3 North Central run that trimmed the Thunder lead to 87-83 with 3:10 left in the game. Wheaton countered with 10 unanswered points to increase its lead to 97-83 with 44-seconds left in the game. Wheaton out-scored the Cardinals 11-2 in the final 3:10 of the game thanks in large part to 9-of-12 free throw shooting for the Thunder in that span as the Thunder earned the 98-85 victory.

Katie McDaniels led the Thunder with a "double-double" as she scored a season-high 28 points with 10 assists. McDaniels shot 10-of-20 from the field and was 8-of-10 at the free throw line. The junior also grabbed nine rebounds and nabbed three steals.

Sophomore Kelly Lawson had a "double-double" as she scored a career-high 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field. She also established a career-high with 17 rebounds, including six offensive boards. Lawson also contributed four assists. Senior Hannah Considine was the third Wheaton player to record a "double-double" tonight as she scored 19 points with four rebounds and also dished out four assists.

Meacham scored 11 points in the game, all in the critical third quarter, and she contributed four assists. Jennifer Berg scored seven points, with seven rebounds and three assists. Freshman Kelly Thornton tallied seven points for the guests.

Whipple led North Central with 23 points and she distributed nine assists. Jamie Cuny scored 13 points with five rebounds for the Cardinals.

Wheaton recorded a 43.4% (36-for-83) field goal percentage in the game, including 26.3% (5-of-19) effort from three-point range. The Cardinals shot 34.4% (31-of-90) from the field, including 32% (16-of-50) behind the three-point arc. Wheaton had a 58.3% (21-of-36) effort at the free throw line tonight and the Cardinals shot 53.8% (7-of-13) at the charity stripe.

Wheaton dominated the Cardinals on the glass with a 62-47 rebounding advantage for the Thunder, including a 25-19 edge on the offensive glass. Wheaton's quick pace was a key to the Thunder advantage tonight as the Thunder owned a 36-9 advantage in fast break points.  

Note Worthy: McDaniels' 28-point effort tonight helped her surpass the 1,000-point milestone for her career as she now has 1,023 points in her three seasons at Wheaton and is 19^th in school history in total points…Considine moved into 20^th place on Wheaton's all-time scoring list tonight with 972 career points, surpassing Amie Karkainen (954) and Julie Schmela (969) on the list…Considine also moved into 13^th place on Wheaton's career rebounds list with 555 as she past Jane Nelson (542).