Wheaton, Ill. - The Thunder women's basketball team needed an answer in the face of a third quarter Carthage run, and found one in the form of its All-American. Hannah Frazier scored 14 of her 24 points in the fourth quarter to lead Wheaton to a 54-52 victory in a crucial CCIW battle against the Lady Reds on Monday afternoon. With the victory, Wheaton pulls even with Carthage at 3-2 in the CCIW, one game back in the standings. Wheaton also improved to 10-4 overall while dropping Carthage to 8-6.

Similar to their victory at North Central, Wheaton's offense came primarily in the second and fourth quarters. Wheaton struggled from the field early, missing its first seven field goals and falling behind 9-2 en route to a 16-9 deficit at the end of the first quarter. Wheaton scored the first seven points of the second quarter and pulled even at 16 apiece on Jill Berg's lay-up. Wheaton would extend its run to 13-2, taking a 22-18 lead on two Hannah Williams free throws. Carthage pulled even again at 23-23 but a free throw by Frazier and a lay-up by Taylor Sanders staked Wheaton to a 26-23 halftime lead.

On the opening possession of the second half, Kristi Demski drilled a three-pointer and Frazier followed with a jumper on the ensuing possession, giving Wheaton a game-high lead of eight points at 31-23 with 8:47 left in the quarter. Carthage answered by holding Wheaton a one field goal for the rest of the third quarter and closing the quarter on a 15-2 run to take a 36-33 lead at the end of the third quarter.

As they did to start the second quarter, Wheaton opened the fourth quarter with seven-straight points to take a 40-36 lead with 7:42 to play. Frazier would go on to score Wheaton's first nine points of the quarter and would score 14 of Wheaton's 21 fourth quarter points. Carthage would reclaim the lead twice down the stretch on an Autumn Kalis three-pointer and a pair of free throws by Amanda Larson, but Frazier put Wheaton ahead with a three-pointer and Kirsten Madsen's three-pointer with 1:50 to go, broke a tie at 47 and gae Wheaton the lead for good. Free throws by Hannah Swider and Frazier iced the game from the free throw line to give Wheaton the 54-52 victory.

Wheaton finished the game shooting 38.1% (16-42) and just 23.8% (5-21) from the three-point line, but tied a program record at the free throw line, converting on all 17 free throw attempts. Carthage shot 46.3% (19-41) from the field and 40% (4-10) from the three-point line. The Lady Reds were 10-13 (76.9%) from the free throw line.

Hannah Frazier finished with a game-high 24 points. Hannah Swider had nine points and Kirsten Madsen finished with eight points. Autumn Kalis led the Lady Reds with 19 points and Amanda Larson finished with nine points and 10 rebounds.

Wheaton will be in action again on Wednesday night with a 7 pm tip-off at King Arena against Carroll University.