Wheaton, Ill. -- Returning to King Arena for the first time in nearly a month, the Thunder women's basketball team resumed conference action on Saturday evening by welcoming the North Park Vikings for Wheaton's first CCIW home game of the season. The hosts outscored their Windy City rivals, 21-4, in the first quarter of tonight's matchup and used this as a springboard to eventually claim a decisive 33-point win. North Park's final tally of 35 marks the lowest score for a Thunder opponent since Wheaton held Otterbein to 34 points in the 2021 Beth Baker Classic. With Saturday's positive result, the Thunder move back above .500 overall for the season and improve to 2-1 in CCIW play. Wheaton has yet to taste defeat in King Arena this year, as the team now owns a 4-0 record in its own gym.
Lily Caddow (pictured right) opened the scoring with a pair of baskets in the lane, and a layup in the paint from
Annika Richardson a minute later put Wheaton ahead by six before North Park scored its first points at the 5:41 mark of the first frame.
Grace Kizer then drained the first three-pointer of the contest, while the Vikings scored their second and last basket of the quarter with just over four minutes left. Wheaton forced two turnovers and four missed shots while scoring four times itself to end the period on an impressive 10-0 stretch and establish a healthy advantage.
The Thunder led by double-digits for the remainder of the game. North Park did well to improve its offensive output in the second quarter and matched Wheaton's tally of 14 points in the period but could not come up with enough stops to chip away at the home side's lead. A three-ball for the visitors halfway through the quarter trimmed the deficit to 12 at 23-11, but Wheaton mounted a 6-0 run and saw three successful three-point attempts in the subsequent two minutes to maintain control of proceedings. NPU notched the final points of the half from the foul line, but the Thunder entered the locker room with a strong 35-18 lead.
Wheaton effectively settled the contest with a seven-point surge to start the second half. The hosts led by at least 20 from the 8:41 mark of the third quarter onward and stretched their advantage to as much as 35 points in the final minutes thanks to an impressive cameo from
Lauryn Ham. The freshman
(pictured left) tallied the Thunder's last six points of the game in her home debut to put the seal on a one-sided 68-35 win.
Wheaton shot 53% from the floor in the first quarter and ended the evening with a total mark of 39.4% while holding North Park to just a 24.4% figure and not allowing any three-pointers or free throws in the first or last quarters. The Thunder knocked down 11 shots from beyond the arc and posted a solid 42.3% mark from three-point land. The two sides were almost exactly evenly split in rebounding with 39 boards for Wheaton and 38 for North Park, but the Thunder earned a noteworthy advantage in the turnover battle on Saturday, forcing 28 by the Vikings and grabbing an impressive 17 steals. Wheaton and NPU posted similar figures in second chance points and fast break points tonight, but the home side tallied impressive disparities in points in the paint (26-8), points off of turnovers (22-6), and bench scoring (20-7).
Richardson led all players with 13 points this evening, brought down five rebounds, and earned three assists. Caddow shot over 50% to notch 12 points and was excellent in her on-ball defending, posting a game-high five steals. Ham scored 12 points in just eight minutes of action off the bench on Saturday and knocked down a game-best three triples in a memorable appearance. Kizer and
Kate Oliver joined the aforementioned three players in double-figures with ten points tonight, with the former grabbing two takeaways and the latter collecting five rebounds and blocking two shots.
Alyssa Faberowski led the team in both rebounding and assists this evening, tallying six and four in those categories respectively and also came up with three steals.
Jenna Hunter contributed eight points, five boards, and two rejections in the win.
After collecting a dominant conference victory at home, the Wheaton women's team will jump back out of CCIW play next weekend. The Thunder are set to end the calendar year and their nonconference schedule by taking on Westminster College for the very first time on Saturday, December 21st. Tip-off in that game is scheduled for 1 PM in King Arena.
