Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton women's basketball team returned to conference play on Wednesday night at home with a matchup against North Park. The Vikings used a strong second quarter to defeat the Thunder 82-71. Wheaton is now 10-3 overall and 2-3 in CCIW play, while North Park improves to 9-2 overall and 2-1 in CCIW play.

Freshman Annika Richardson led the Thunder with a career-high for the second-consecutive game. Richardson scored 33 points, making three three-pointers, with five rebounds. Richardson scored 28 points in the second half, shooting 10-of-14 from the field in the final 20 minutes of the game.

Hannah Swider scored 12 points, with seven rebounds, and four assists. Ellie Cassel tallied a 'double-double' with 10 points and 15 rebounds. Cassel added six assists and two blocked shots. Lily Schwen distributed four assists and blocked three shots.

Wheaton shot 47.5% (28-for-59) from the field, including 25% (4-for-16) from three-point range. North Park posted a 46% (29-of-63) field goal percentage, including a stellar 55.6% (10-for-18) effort behind the three-point arc. Wheaton out-rebounded the Vikings 46-25, including a 15-6 edge on the offensive glass.

Three different NPU players scored 20 or more points in the game. Jayla Johnson scored 24 points to lead North Park, adding eight rebounds. Emily Czuhajewski scored 23 points, all in the first half. Czuhajewski shot 8-for-14 in the game, including 7-of-10 from three-point range. Esther Miller tallied 20 points, with four rebounds, four steals, and four assists. Chantel Hairston scored nine points, with six rebounds and five assists.
North Park led 20-16 at the end of the first quarter. Czuhajewski led all players with 11 points, making a trio of three-pointers in the opening quarter.

Czuhajewski added 12 points in the second quarter, with four more three-pointers as she scored 23 points in the first half. She scored 23 points in the first half on 8-of-11 shooting from the field, including 7-of-9 from three-point range. The Vikings out-scored Wheaton 31-8 in the second quarter as guests led 51-24 at halftime.

Wheaton gradually cut into the Vikings' lead in the third quarter, trimming the NPU lead to 67-46 at the end of the third period.

North Park led by 17 points at 77-60 with 2:30 left in the fourth quarter. Cassel made a layup at that point and sparked a 9-1 Thunder run that trimmed the guests' lead to 78-69 with 30-seconds remaining in the game. The strong Thunder run was not enough to overcome the Vikings' large early lead.

Wheaton is scheduled to return to action next Wednesday at Millikin in a 7:00 p.m. tipoff against the Big Blue.