Wheaton, Ill. - The Thunder women's basketball team saw its second half lead disappear as the Thunder suffered their first setback of the season with an 82-77 loss to the University of Chicago on Wednesday night at King Arena. Wheaton led by as many as 13 early in the second half but could not hold off the Maroons who improved to 4-2 with the victory. Wheaton will head into CCIW play on Saturday with a 3-1 record.

Wheaton shot a healthy 50.8% (31-61) from the field and made five of its nine three-point attempts but struggled at the free throw line, shooting just 50% (10-20). Chicago shot 41.5% (27-65) and 42.9% (9-21) from the three-point line. The Maroons made 19-of-25 free throw attempts to finish at 76%. Chicago dominated the rebounding battle 44-33 including an 18-11 edge on the offensive glass.

An up-tempo first quarter favored the hosts as Wheaton broke an 11-11 tie with a quick 11-2 run including nine-straight points by Kelly Lawson. As they did all night, Chicago refused to go away and chipped the lead down to 24-20 on Taylor Lake's jumper in the final seconds.

The Thunder used the opening half of the second quarter to push the lead into double figures. Lake would cut the lead back down to eight but Wheaton responded by holding Chicago scoreless for nearly four minutes, building its biggest lead of the night when Jordan Myroth's lay-up put Wheaton ahead by 14 with 3:20 to play. Wheaton's lead would be 40-30 at the half.

A Devin Kyler three-pointer on the opening possession of the third quarter posted Wheaton's largest second half lead before the Maroons started to close the gap, using an 8-0 run over a stretch of 35 seconds to cut the lead down to 52-49 with 4:03 left in the quarter. Wheaton built the lead back up to seven but again could not close the quarter and Mia Farrell's three-point play with three seconds left in the quarter cut the lead down to 60-58 heading into the final quarter.

Chicago pulled even right away and took its first lead since the early minutes on Lake's free throw with 8:11 remaining. The teams jockeyed back and forth until Kyler's three at the 5:29 mark broke a 67-67 tie. After a Jill Berg free throw made it 71-67, Jamie Kockenmeister's three-pointer cut the Thunder lead to one and jump-started a closing 15-6 run by the Maroons to claim the 82-77 victory.

Chicago's Taylor Lake led all scorers with 22 points followed closely by Mia Farrell's 21 points. Olriche Obi grabbed a game-high 17 rebounds to go with 11 points for the guests. Maggie Dansdill led the hosts with 20 points and was joined in double figures by Kelly Lawson with 14 points, Hannah Frazier with 13 points and Devin Kyler with 12 points to go with five steals and a team-best seven rebounds.

Wheaton will begin its three-time CCIW title defense on Saturday, when the Thunder welcome Millikin to King Arena for a 5 pm tipoff.