Bloomington, Ill. -- The Wheaton women's basketball team ventured out on the road for the final time in the regular season on Wednesday night, traveling to central Illinois to take on conference co-leaders Illinois Wesleyan University. The hosting Titans, ranked #15 in the country by D3hoops.com, ended the Thunder's three-game win streak tonight with their sixth-consecutive victory to move one step closer to a third-straight CCIW regular season title. IWU's overall record now stands at 19-5 with a near-perfect 14-1 mark in league play, while Wheaton slips to 10-14 on the year and a 6-9 CCIW record. The Thunder are tied with Augustana College in
the conference standings and will learn their CCIW Tournament qualification status on Saturday as the regular season draws to a close.
The Orange and Blue found success on the offensive end against the conference's best defense in the two sides' first meeting of the season in Wheaton one month ago. But Wednesday's matchup unfolded differently, as the Titans held the Thunder to just 16 points in the second half and led wire-to-wire to maintain their first-place standing in the league.
The CCIW Student-Athlete of the Week,
Kate Oliver, got Wheaton on the board with a free throw following a flagrant foul call on an IWU player, but the home side scored the first eight points from open play to establish an early advantage. A jumper in the lane from
Lily Caddow trimmed the deficit to 10-7, before the Titans closed the first quarter on a 7-4 tilt to build a 17-11 edge. The Thunder twice drew back within three points in the second quarter thanks to consecutive triples by
Grace Kizer. But the decisive stretch of the contest came in the second half of the frame, as Illinois Wesleyan mounted a 10-0 run and kept Wheaton off the scoreboard in the last six minutes of the half to secure a double-digit lead that it would not relinquish.
The hosts held their suburban visitors to a 30% field goal mark after halftime with a stout defensive performance and made their advantage in the interior count, outscoring the Thunder, 42-18, in the paint and picking up 11 points at the foul line compared to Wheaton's two.
Illinois Wesleyan finished the game with a 41.8% shooting tally while limiting Wheaton to a 26.7% figure for the night. Both sides knocked down four three-pointers from a combined 46 attempts in a difficult outing from distance. In addition to their paint scoring advantage, the Titans controlled the glass with a 48-36 rebounding edge and forced 27 turnovers in a disruptive showing, with both squads reaching double-digits in steals. IWU also enjoyed sizable disparities in points off of turnovers and fast break scoring on Wednesday.
Lily Caddow and
Ann Magee Stradinger led Wheaton in scoring tonight with eight points apiece, with the former grabbing four rebounds and three assists and the latter tallying three boards and two three-pointers. Kizer, Oliver, and
Jenna Hunter each finished with six points, and Hunter brought down five rebounds while Oliver contributed three dimes and two blocks.
Petra Trumbach led the Thunder in rebounding and takeaways this evening, totaling nine and four, respectively.
Wheaton will return to King Arena on Saturday for its Senior Night contest and regular season finale against Millikin University in a 5 PM tip-off. Victory in this game would likely be enough to see the Thunder claim the #6 seed in next week's conference tournament, but it will depend on the outcome of Saturday's Augustana-Illinois Wesleyan matchup at 2 PM.
