Wheaton, Ill. - The Wheaton Thunder women's basketball team defeated North Park 68-56 on Friday night in the second semifinal game of the 2019 CCIW Women's Basketball Tournament. Wheaton (22-4) advances to the tournament's championship game on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. in King Arena. The Thunder will play Illinois Wesleyan (22-4) tomorrow night after the Titans defeated Carthage 78-59 Friday night in the opening semifinal game in King Arena.

Wheaton junior Hannah Frazier led the Thunder against North Park with 26 points, nine rebounds, five assists and five blocked shots. Sophomore guard Hannah Williams (PICTURED LEFT) scored 15 points with five rebounds and three assists. Kirsten Madsen scored nine points off the Thunder bench with three assists. Jill Berg tallied eight points with six rebounds and two assists.

Wheaton snapped a 4-4 tie with 4:57 remaining in the first quarter with an 11-4 run to give the Thunder a 15-8 lead at the conclusion of the first quarter. The Vikings out-scored the Thunder 7-3 in the first four minutes of the second quarter. A three-pointer by Wheaton's Kristi Demski with 5:49 remaining before halftime sparked a 14-4 Thunder run to close out the quarter. Wheaton led the Vikings 32-19 at halftime.

Wheaton maintained a double-digit lead throughout the third quarter as Wheaton led 53-35 at the end of the third period. Wheaton's largest lead of the game was a 21-point advantage at 65-44 with 5:25 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Thunder maintained a double-digit lead on its way to the 68-56 final score.  

The Thunder posted  a 47.9% (23-of-48) field goal percentage tonight, including 36.4% (4-of-11) from three-point range. North Park shot 37.3% (22-of-59) from the field, including 30% (3-of-10) behind the three-point arc. Wheaton shot 90% (18-of-20) at the free throw line and the Vikings had a 64.3% (9-of-14) effort at the charity stripe. Wheaton out-rebounded the Vikings 36-28 as the Vikings held a 7-4 edge on the offensive glass. Wheaton tou advantage of North Park's 16 turnovers, out-scoring the Vikings 21-12 off of turnovers.

Jayla Johnson led the Vikings with 15 points, five rebounds and four steals. Zakiya Newsome tallied 12 points for the Vikings and Lauryn Alba Garner registered 10 points.

Note Worthy: With 26 points tonight, Frazier now has 509 points this season to become the fourth player in program history to reach the 500-point milestone in a single-season...Kyler's game-high 12 rebounds tonight improves her career total to 785, moving past Janet Ahlborn (1990-94) for third place on the program's career rebounds list...Kyler now has 798 career points moving past Sara Kurtz (1994-98) for 31st place on Wheaton's career scoring list...Myroth moves into sixth-place on Wheaton's single-season assists list with 136 this year, passing Katie McDaniels (2015-16)...Frazier moves past Chantal Meacham (2013-17) and Sandra Kitchen (1981-85) into 23^rd on the program's career scoring list with 933 points.