Santa Cruz, Calif. – The No. 14 ranked Wheaton women's basketball team returned to action on Friday afternoon with the first of two games in California. The Thunder (5-1) earned a 73-70 victory against UC-Santa Cruz (2-4). Wheaton closes its trip on Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. with a contest against Birmingham Southern at 7:00 p.m. (PDT).

Senior All-American Hannah Frazier led the Thunder with a career-high 38 points in Wheaton's victory. She also grabbed six offensive rebounds and seven offensive boards to total 13 rebounds, in recording a "double-double." Frazier also added four assists, three steals and one blocked shot.

Senior Jordan Myroth scored nine points with seven assists and two blocked shots. Senior Kirsten Madsen scored eight points as she tied Frazier for the team lead in three pointers with two treys. Hannah Swider scored six points for the Thunder and Jill Berg scored five points. Berg added nine rebounds with five blocked shots.

Wheaton shot 37.1% (23-of-62) from the field, including 29.4% (5-of-17) behind the three point arc. UC-Santa Cruz posted a 37.9% (25-of-66) field goal percentage, including a 28% (7-for-25) effort from three-point range. Wheaton shot 75.9% (22-for-29) effort at the free throw line and the Banana Slugs posted a 65% (13-of-20) effort at the charity stripe. UC-Santa Cruz out-rebounded the Thunder 45-42, including a 16-13 advantage on the offensive glass.

Ashley Kowack of UC-Santa Cruz led the hosts with 20 points. Kaylee Murphy added 16 points and 18 rebounds for the Banana Slugs. CJ Catina scored 11 points for the hosts and Savannah Henson added 10 points.

Wheaton jumped out to an early 8-3 lead in the first four minutes. The Banana Slugs closed the gap late in the first quarter as Wheaton led the hosts 17-16 at the end of the opening quarter.
The second quarter was tightly contested as the two teams went to the locker rooms at halftime tied 34-34.

The game was tied 37-37 with 6:10 remaining in the third quarter when Catina made a three-pointer for UC-Santa Cruz. Catina's trey sparked an 8-2 run for the hosts as the Banana Slugs gained a 45-39 lead. A layup by Madsen with 5:13 left in the third quarter sparked a string of 10 unanswered points for Wheaton. The 10-0 run culminated with a three-pointer by Frazier with 2:44 left in the third quarter to give Wheaton a 49-45 lead. The Thunder led 58-50 at the end of the third quarter.

UC-Santa Cruz kept the game close in the fourth quarter, trailing by two points for much of the quarter, but the hosts could never get closer than a two-point deficit. The final two-point gap in the score occurred with 4:30 remaining in the fourth quarter, however, that would be the closest the hosts could get for the rest of the game.