La Verne, Calif. – The Wheaton women's basketball team opened its 2026-27 season on Friday in Southern California. Wheaton used a strong third quarter to open the campaign with a 67-51 victory at University of La Verne (0-1). Wheaton's season-opening trip to California concludes on Saturday at Pomona-Pitzer with a 4:00 p.m. (PST) tipoff against the Sagehens.
Senior
Jenna Hunter led all players with 23 points and 10 rebounds in recording a double-double. Hunter also recorded three steals and blocked two shots. Sophomore
Chloe Kostka scored 15 points with four assists and two steals. Kostka made five of Wheaton's 10 three-pointers in the game.
Lily Caddow scored nine points with nine rebounds. Sophomore
Ann Magee Stradinger tallied eight points, with four assists and a game-high four steals.
Petra Trumbach tied Hunter for the team lead with 10 rebounds. Trumbach also tied for the team lead with four assists and added two steals to go with her trademark hard-nosed defense.
Wheaton shot 40.3% (25-of-62) from the field, including a solid 43.5% (10-for-23) effort behind the three-point arc. The Thunder defense held La Verne to a 25% (19-of-76) field goal percentage, including just 18.8% (6-of-32) from three-point range. The Thunder shot 63.6% (7-of-11) at the free throw line and La Verne shot 53.8% (7-of-13) at the charity stripe. Each team collected 49 rebounds, with La Verne posting a 21-10 edge on the offensive glass.
Isabella Gray-Musolff led the Leopards with 14 points and six rebounds. Maya Sanborn scored 10 points with four rebounds. Alyssa Smith and Rylee Cabuyadao-Caswell each grabbed nine rebounds for the hosts.
The Leopards led 11-6 with 3:39 left in the first quarter when
Lauryn Ham made the first of back-to-back three pointers off the Thunder bench to give the guests a 12-11 lead. Ham's two treys sparked a 13-3 Thunder run that was capped off by
Paige Ferwerda's three-pointer with 30-seconds left in the opening quarter as Wheaton lead 19-13 at the end of the first.
Wheaton led 26-20 with 5:35 left in the second quarter when a La Verne basket sparked a 9-3 run for the hosts to close out the first half. The contest was tied at 29-29 at halftime.
The Thunder out-scored La Verne 12-2 in the first five minutes of the third quarter. Six of the 12 Thunder points in the run came on three-pointers by Kostka. Wheaton scored nine unanswered points to close out the quarter as Wheaton led 50-36 at the end of the third quarter. Kostka made three of her game-high five three-pointers in the third, scoring nine points.
Wheaton's largest lead of the game was the 16-point lead that resulted in the 67-51 final score.
