Naperville, Ill. – The Thunder women's basketball team topped North Central College on Saturday night in its first game after a three-week holiday hiatus. With the 52-40 victory, Wheaton has now won 22-straight against the Cardinals, its longest streak against any conference team.
Hannah Frazier (PICTURED ABOVE) led all scorers with 19 points on the night, and she also added a game-high nine rebounds along with four assists.
Hannah Williams added 10 points, four rebounds and three assists.
Jordan Myroth (PICTURED LEFT) contributed four points, four assists, and seven rebounds, while
Jill Berg tallied a game-high three blocks along with five rebounds.
As a team, the Thunder shot 36.4% (20-of-55) from the field compared to North Central's 25% (12-of-48). The Cardinals were stronger from behind the three-point arc, shooting 27.8% (5-of-18) while the Thunder shot just 17.6% (3-of-17) from long range. Wheaton out-rebounded North Central, grabbing 41 boards compared to NCC's 32, and the Thunder were flawless from the charity stripe, making nine of nine free throws—all in the second half—while the Cardinals made 11 of 17 (64.7%).
Wheaton scored the first bucket of the game and led through almost the entire first quarter until a North Central free-throw gave the Cardinals a 7-6 lead at the end of the frame. The Thunder offense exploded for 16 points in the second quarter, including an 8-0 run highlighted by three-pointers from both
Jill Berg and
Bonnie Zeller, to give Wheaton a 22-12 lead at the half.
North Central came out of the locker room with the hot hand to start the third quarter as the Cardinals went on a 9-2 run to cut Wheaton's lead to 24-19 halfway through the period. Another late push helped North Central go on an 8-2 run and tie the score at 30 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Thunder scored the first three buckets of the final frame and never looked back, rattling off another 11 unanswered points en route to a 22-10 period. Frazier scored 11 of her 19 points in the final quarter, and
Kirsten Madsen chipped in another five to help Wheaton to the 52-40 victory.
With the win, Wheaton improves to 9-4 overall and 2-2 in the CCIW, while North Central drops to 5-8 and 1-3 in conference play.
The Thunder are back in action next Saturday against Carthage College (7-5, 2-1) in the first of three straight CCIW games in King Arena.
