PICTURED ABOVE: Chantal Meacham scored 17 points to lead the Thunder tonight.

St. Louis, Mo. – The Wheaton Thunder women's basketball team ended its season on Saturday night in an 83-74 loss at Washington University in St. Louis (25-2) in the Second Round of the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Tournament on Saturday. Wheaton finishes the season with a 24-5 record, the second-highest single-season win total in program history.

Thunder head coach Kent Madsen noted of the game, "At this round of the NCAA Tournament you expect it to be a well-fought battle and I thought our team gave a great effort tonight. We kept challenging them, but they [WashU] ultimately got the job done.

Chantal Meacham led the Thunder with 17 points, making four three-pointers. The senior also distributed four assists in her final game with the Thunder. Sophomore Devin Kyler scored 15 points, with five rebounds, three assists and two steals. Senior Katie McDaniels tallied 14 points with four assists and four steals.

Kelly Lawson scored nine points with two assists and three rebounds. Ellie Zeller (PICTURED LEFT) registered nine points in her final game with the Thunder. Jill Berg scored six points tonight.

The Bears jumped out to a 9-2 lead and Wheaton chipped away at the hosts lead to trim the WashU lead to 18-16 with 1:24 left in the first quarter. WashU scored the final four points of the quarter for a 22-16 lead at the conclusion of the third quarter.

WashU led 31-22 with 5:54 remaining in the second quarter, but Wheaton countered with a 9-4 run to trim the hosts' lead to 35-33 with 3:12 left in the opening half. A three-pointer by Zeller with 19-seconds left in the half accounted for a 41-38 WashU lead at halftime.

Wheaton opened the second half strong as Kyler scored a pair of baskets in the third minute of the third quarter to tie the game at 44-44 with 7:02 left in the quarter. McDaniels made a free throw with 6:01 remaining in the quarter to give Wheaton its first and only lead of the game at 45-44. The Bears closed out the quarter with a 14-4 run to give the hosts a 58-49 lead at the conclusion of the third quarter.

WashU built up a 74-60 lead with 4:33 remaining in the game when Kyler (PICTURED RIGHT) converted an old-fashioned three-point play. Kyler's bucket and free throw was the start of a 7-0 Thunder run that cut the hosts' lead to 74-67 with 2:30 remaining in the game. The Thunder continued to battle as Meacham made her final collegiate three-pointer with 40-seconds left in the game to cut the WashU lead to 78-74. WashU was 5-for-6 at the free throw line in the final 33-seconds of the game to secure the 83-74 victory.  

Wheaton shot 45.9% (28-of-61) from the field, including 33.3% (6-of-18) behind the three-point arc. The Bears registered a 48.3% (29-of-60) field goal percentage, including 47.1% (8-for-17) behind the three-point arc. Wheaton shot 70.6% (12-of-17) at the free throw line and WashU had an 89.5% effort at the charity stripe. WashU out-rebounded the Thunder 43-26, including a 16-9 edge on the offensive glass. The Bears had 13 turnovers tonight, to just six for the Thunder as Wheaton out-scored the hosts 14-6 in points off of turnovers.

Madeline Homoly led the Bears with 26 points, 11 rebounds and five assists. Zoe Vernon scored 15 points and grabbed six rebounds. Natalie Orr scored 12 points with two assists. Steph Botkin registered 10 points.  

Note Worthy [Team Single-Season Records]: The Thunder shattered the program's single-season record for field goals with 836 this season, breaking the previous record of 756 field goals in the 1995-96 season…the squad averaged 77.2 points per game this year, to establish a new single-season record for the program to top the previous mark of 75.5 points per game in the 2013-14 campaign…Wheaton's 45.4% (836-of-1840) field goal percentage this year established a new single-season record, breaking the previous mark of 44.6% (756-of-1695)...the 24 wins this season is the second-highest single-season total in program history...the team's 396 free throws is second in the Wheaton record books...the team dished out an average of 18.1 assists per game this year, the third-highest assist total in program history...the average margin of victory for the Thunder this year was 17.2 points per game, ranking third all-time...Wheaton's 170 three-pointers this year is fifth in the team record books...defensively, Wheaton held foes to 35.0% (624-of-1782) shooting from the field this year to rank fifth.

Note Worthy [Individual Single-Season Records]: McDaniels' 14-point effort tonight improved her season point total to 543 to surpass the longstanding Wheaton single-season scoring record of 538 points by Nicole Merchant (1995-96)…McDaniels' 154 free throws this year is second in the Wheaton record books, behind her own single-season record of 161 free throws in 2015-16…Meacham's 63 three-pointers this year is sixth-most in a single-season…McDaniels' season average of 19.4 points per game is sixth…the 128 assists for McDaniels this year is eighth in the Thunder single-season record books…McDaniels' 182 field goals this year ranks ninth.

Note Worthy [Career Records]: Four players finished the season ranked on the program's top-35 career points list as McDaniels leaves the program third all-time in scoring (1,737 points), Zeller is eighth (1,219 points), Meacham is 24^th (920 points) and Lawson is 35^th (704 points)…Meacham departs the program as its career leader in three-pointers (240)…McDaniels is Wheaton's all-time leader in free throws (586) and Zeller ranks ninth with 251 free throws…McDaniels' 480 career assists is first in the Wheaton record books and the 313 assists distributed by Meacham ranks ninth all-time…Zeller's 50.8% (459-of-904) career field goal percentage ranks third in the program's record books…McDaniels' 541 career field goals is fourth in program history and Zeller's 459 field goals ranks eighth all-time…Kyler ends her sophomore season with 68 career blocked shots to rank seventh in program history…with her four steals tonight, Katie McDaniels moved into ninth place on the program's all-time steals list with 189 career thefts…Zeller's 487 career rebounds ranks 17^th in team history and McDaniels' 447 caroms is 24^th all-time.