PICTURED ABOVE: Ellie Zeller scored eight of her 10 points in the first half in Wheaton's 68-52 victory at Millikin on Wednesday night.

Decatur, Ill. - An early scoring drought proved to be just a blip on the radar on Wednesday night as the Thunder women's basketball team won its fourth-straight game in a 68-52 victory at Millikin. Wheaton is now 19-4 overall and 12-2 in the CCIW. Millikin falls to 9-14 overall and 3-11 in conference play. Wheaton will wrap up its road schedule on Saturday night when the Thunder travel to Carroll for a 5 pm tip-off before returning to King Arena on Tuesday, February 21 for the regular season finale against Illinois Wesleyan.

Wheaton took the first lead of the game but it would be the Millikin that scored the next eight points while holding the Thunder scoreless of just under five minutes of play. Wheaton would recover from the 8-2 hole and Ellie Zeller's lay-up in the final seconds of the first quarter made it 10-8 after the first stanza. Millikin was able to hold off the Thunder for the first few minutes of the second quarter until Devin Kyler's lqy-up with 7:13 to play in the first half gave Wheaton the lead for good and started a 14-2 Thunder run to take control of the game. Wheaton was able to lead 30-21 at halftime after holding the Big Blue without a field goal for the final 7:25 of the half.

Millikin cut the lead down to eight points early in the third quarter but a 7-0 run over the ensuing four and a half minutes pushed the Thunder lead to 40-25. Wheaton led by as many as 18 points in the fourth quarter but never fewer than 13 as the Thunder cruised to the 68-52 victory.

Wheaton shot 37.9% (25-66) from the field despite shooting just 20% (5-25) from beyond the arc. Wheaton struggled to the tune of just 59.1% (13-22) at the free throw line. Millikin 32.2% but missed all eight of its three-point attempts. The Big Blue shot 87.5% (14-16) at the charity stripe. Wheaton outboarded Millikin 45-38 including 16-10 on the offensive glass. The Thunder committed just nine turnovers and recorded eight steals.

Katie McDaniels led the Thunder with 17 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Chantal Meacham scored 11 points and Devin Kyler, Kelly Lawson and Ellie Zeller each finished with 10 points. Kyler grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds. Emily Schultz led Millikin with 19 points and Lauren Moses grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.

Wheaton will next be in action on Saturday, when the Thunder travel north to face Carroll University at 5 pm.

Note Worthy: Ellie Zeller moved past Jane Nelson (1979-83) into ninth on Wheaton's career scoring list with 1,184 career points...Chantal Meacham moved past Colleen Joransen (1988-92) into 27th place on the career scoring list with 844 career points.