PICTURED ABOVE: Katie McDaniels tied for the game-high with 23 points tonight and the junior added seven assists.

Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton Thunder women's basketball team moved one step closer to repeating as Champions of the CCIW Women's Basketball Tournament with an 82-50 victory at home tonight in the second semifinal game of the 2016 CCIW Women's Basketball Tournament.
 
Top-seeded Wheaton will entertain second-seeded Illinois Wesleyan on Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. in the tournament's championship game. The winner of Saturday's championship game between the CCIW's two co-champions this year will earn the conference's automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Tournament. Second-seeded Illinois Wesleyan defeated third-seeded North Central 96-84 in tonight's first semifinal matchup in Wheaton's King Arena.

Ticket prices for Saturday's game are $6.00 for adults, $3.00 for seniors and youth/students, and children under three-years-old will be admitted for free. Students with valid CCIW school ID will be admitted free of charge. As a CCIW Championship event CCIW parent passes, faculty/staff ID's, or Thunder season passes will not be honored.
 
Wheaton led Elmhurst 7-5 tonight after three-and-a-half minutes of play, but the Thunder closed the first quarter with a strong 14-4 scoring run to lead the Bluejays 21-9 at the conclusion of the first quarter. The late first-quarter surge was highlighted by three-pointers from Jennifer Berg (PICTURED LEFT), NatalieRose Brogan and Chantal Meacham.
 
Wheaton continued its dominance in the second quarter as Wheaton out-scored Elmhurst 16-9 in the period to extend the hosts' lead to 37-18 at halftime. Wheaton maintained a double-digit lead for the entirety of the game to secure the commanding 32-point win.
 
Katie McDaniels led Wheaton with 23 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field and a 9-of-9 effort at the free throw line. McDaniels added seven assists and two steals for the hosts. Sophomore Kelly Lawson (PICTURED RIGHT) scored 11 points with four rebounds, three assists and two steals for the Thunder. Berg contributed 11 points, making a trio of three-pointers off of the Wheaton bench.
 
Hannah Considine led all players with nine rebounds and Brogan scored seven points with five rebounds and two steals. Kelly Thornton scored eight points for Wheaton and Maggie Dansdill, Meacham and Devin Kyler each scored six points for the hosts.  Meacham, Kyler and Lawson each distributed three assists.
 
Elmhurst's Mikaela Eppard tied McDaniels for the game's scoring lead with 23 points and she also grabbed six rebounds. Kaela Jones scored nine points for Bluejays.
 
Wheaton shot a season-best 58.8% (30-of-51) from the field in tonight's win. The Thunder posted a 56.5% (13-for-23) field goal percentage in the first half and improved to 60.7% (17-for-28) in the second half. The Thunder shot 80% (8-of-10) from behind the three-point arc to establish a new CCIW Tournament record for three-point field goal percentage as the 'Orange and Blue' topped the previous tournament record of 58% (11-of-19) that was set by Wheaton against Carthage on Feb. 23, 2007. Wheaton shot 73.7% (14-of-19) at the free throw line tonight and Elmhurst had a 53.3% (8-of-15) effort at the charity stripe. The Bluejays shots 40% (18-of-45) from the field, including 35.3% (6-of-17) from three-point range tonight.
 
Note Worthy: Katie McDaniels' 23-point effort tonight moved her into 16^th-place on Wheaton's career scoring list with 1,145 points as she passed Lindsey Brenneman (1,037 points) and Linda Carlson (1,024 points)…McDaniels' nine free throws tonight gives her 141 made free throws on the season and she has tied her own single-season record for made free throws with the 141 she made in 2013-14 and the 141 free throws made by Nicole Merchant in 1996-97…McDaniels also moved into sixth place on Wheaton's single-season assists list with 131 this year as she is now tied with the 131 that Kerry Cole had in 1995-96…Considine's nine rebounds tonight gives her 610 career rebounds and moved her past Jenna Will (605) for sixth place on the program's career rebounds list.