Elmhurst, Ill. - The Thunder women's basketball survived a three-point attempt at the buzzer to hold off Elmhurst's spirited comeback bid for a 63-60 Thunder victory. The win moves Wheaton to 15-5 on the season following the fifth-straight Thunder won as Wheaton also improved to 8-3 in conference play. Elmhurst falls to 7-13 overall and 2-9 in the CCIW. Wheaton will be back in action again on Wednesday night when the Thunder travel to Rock Island for a 7 pm tip-off at Augustana.

Wheaton finished the game shooting 39.6% (21-53) from the field and 43.8% (7-16) from the three-point line. Elmhurst shot 37.9% (25-66) from the field and connected on half of its 12 three-point attempts. Wheaton outscored the Bluejays 14-4 at the free throw line, hitting 14-of-20 attempts.

Elmhurst took control of the game in the early minutes, scoring the first four points of the game and racing out to a 13-4 lead. Wheaton cut the lead down to five with two minutes to play and was able to keep the lead at 19-12 by the end of the quarter thanks to a Bonnie Zeller three-pointer with eight seconds left. The Thunder defense led the way at the start of the second quarter, holding Elmhurst scoreless nearly four minutes while Wheaton scored seven-straight points on the back of Jill Berg's strong performance. Berg scored the first two baskets and added a block and four rebounds during the run.

The Bluejays answered with five straight points and pulled back out to a 27-21 lead at the midway point of the second quarter, but Wheaton would hold the hosts to just one field goal for the rest of the quarter as Wheaton closed the half on an 11-3 run to take a 32-30 halftime lead. Hannah Frazier scored the first eight points of the Thunder run and Kirsten Madsen closed the half with a three-pointer in the final minute to give Wheaton the lead.

With the Wheaton lead at 35-34 early in the third quarter, Wheaton embarked on a 13-0 run over a span of five-plus minutes to take control of the game. Madsen book-ended the run with a pair of three-pointers with Frazier adding three points and Jordan Myroth adding four-straight to the run as well. Elmhurst responded with a six-point run to get the lead back to eight points, but three Thunder free throws in the final minute pushed Wheaton's lead to 51-40 at the end of the third quarter.

Elmhurst turned the tables on the Thunder to open the fourth quarter, starting on a 10-0 run until Hannah Frazier's three-point play finally broke the streak over four minutes into the final quarter. The Bluejays knotted the game up at 54-54 with 3:54, but Wheaton answered with seven-straight points to take a 61-54 lead with 2:44 to play. The Bluejays pulled within 61-60 at the 1:11 mark after a pair of three-pointers and had a shot to take the lead with eight seconds left that was no good. After Hannah Swider converted two free throws, the Bluejays had a final attempt to tie the game, but could not hit it as the Thunder escaped with the 63-60 victory.

Hannah Frazier led all players with 25 points to go with six rebounds. Kirsten Madsen scored 12 points on four three-pointers and Hannah Swider and Jill Berg each had seven points with Berg grabbing a game-high eight rebounds. Becca Gerke and Courtney O'Donnell each scored 13 points to lead the Bluejays.