Waverly, Iowa – The Wheaton College women's basketball team battled throughout its NCAA Tournament First Round game against Whitman College Friday night on the campus of Wartburg College. The tenth-ranked Blues edged the Thunder 86-83 in overtime.

Wheaton concludes the season with a 20-8 overall record. Whitman improves to 25-3 as the Blues will face the advancing team from tonight's other first round game in Waverly between Wartburg and Monmouth on Saturday in a Second Round game of the tournament.

Senior Hannah Frazier led the Thunder with a game-high 27 points, making a trio of three-pointers. Frazier added six rebounds, three assists and two steals. Hannah Williams (PICTURED LEFT) scored 18 points with three assists and two steals.

Sophomore Hannah Swider (PICTURED RIGHT) scored eight points with five rebounds and senior Jill Berg scored eight points. Senior Kirsten Madsen scored seven points with six rebounds and three assists. Jordan Myroth and Bonnie Zeller each scored six points. Myroth added seven rebounds, with two steals.

The Thunder shot 35.3% (26-of-68) from the field tonight, including 43.3% (11-of-26) behind the three-point arc. Whitman posted a 43.9% (25-of-57) field goal percentage, including 45.5% (10-of-22) from three-point range. Wheaton shot 82.8% (11-of-26) at the free throw line tonight and the Blues shot 83.9% (26-of-31) at the charity stripe.

Wheaton out-rebounded Whitman 39-38 tonight, including a 17-11 edge on the offensive glass. The offensive rebounding edge for the Thunder helped Wheaton a 22-13 edge in second-chance points.   

The teams battled through a tightly contested first quarter. The Blues led Wheaton 20-17 at the end of the opening quarter.

Whitman quickly increased its lead in the second quarter as the Blues scored the first seven points of the quarter in a span of 1:38 to increase the Blues' lead to 27-17 with 8:22 left in the first half. The 10-point bulge at that point was the largest lead by either team in the opening half.

The Blues led by eight points at 29-21 with 5:43 remaining in the second quarter when a Jordan Myroth layup sparked a key Thunder run. Myroth's basket started a 16-8 Wheaton run to close out the second quarter as the two teams were tied 37-37 at the halftime intermission.

Frazier led Wheaton in first-half scoring with 14 points. Madsen (PICTURED RIGHT) and Williams each scored seven points.

Swider made two three-pointers in the first minute of a very strong third quarter for the Thunder. Wheaton shot 53.3 (8-of-15) in the third period, including an impressive 53.3% (5-of-9) behind the three-point arc. Wheaton led the Blues 64-57 at the conclusion of the third quarter.

Wheaton continued to maintain a strong lead over the first five minutes of the fourth quarter as the Thunder led 72-64 with 4:51 left in the final quarter. The Blues battled back with a 12-4 run to close out the fourth quarter as the two teams were tied 76-76 at the end of regulation.

Wheaton led 74-70 with 2:41 left in the fourth quarter when Taylor Chambers made a basket for the Blues to trim the Wheaton lead to 74-72. Chambers made a pair of free throws with 1:57 remaining in regulation to tie the game at 74-74. Whitworth made one of two free throw attempts with 1:14 remaining in the game and the Blues again made one of two at the charity stripe with 53-seconds left to give Whitman a 76-74 lead. Frazier drove to the basket, off of a Williams pass, and made a layup with seven seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 76-76. Whitman's final shot attempt of regulation was no good as the two teams headed to overtime.

Frazier scored the first basket of overtime with a layup at the 4:05 mark. Berg (PICTURED LEFT) followed with a pair of free throws to give Wheaton an 80-76 lead with 2:43 remaining in the extra session. Whitman's Maddy Burdett made a three-pointer on the Blues' next possession to trim Wheaton's advantage to 80-79 with 2:13 left in OT. Zeller responded by calmly draining a three-pointer at the 2:13 mark to give Wheaton a four-point lead at 83-79.

Chambers of the Blues responded with a three-pointer at 1:58 to trim Wheaton's lead to one point at 83-82. Burdett added a trey for Whitman with 30-seconds left in the extra session to give Whitman its first lead of OT at 85-83. Wheaton was unable to score on the possession that followed and the Thunder fouled Whitman with 22-seconds left in OT. The Blues made one of two free throw attempts as Wheaton had a final possession with an opportunity to tie the game. A three-point attempt in the closing seconds was blocked and Wheaton could not get a second shot attempt off in time as Whitman emerged with the First Round win.

Burdett led Whitman with 22 points, making five three-pointers. Kaylie McCraken scored 17 points with eight rebounds. Chambers scored 15 points with eight assists. Natalie Whitesel scored 14 points and Lily Gustafson grabbed eight rebounds for the Blues.

NOTE WORTHY:  Wheaton's 20-8 record this season marks the 16th time in program history that Wheaton has achieved a 20-win season and this year marked the sixth-consecutive year Wheaton has accomplished at least 20 wins, the best streak in program history...Frazier's 524 points this season is the fourth-highest single-season point total in program history...Frazier's 150 made free throws this year is third in program history...Myroth concludes her career fourth in program history with with 431 career assists...Berg's 234 career blocked shots is third in program history and the 192 career blocks by Frazier is fifth...Frazier is fifth in team history with 1,497 career points...Frazier wraps up her career with 549 careeer rebounds, a mark that is 16th in program history and Bergs 541 career caroms rans 18th in the Thunder record book.