By Nick McClintock

WHEATON- The Illinois Wesleyan Titan Women’s Basketball team needed a win to get into the NCAA tournament. Unfortunately for the Titan’s, the Wheaton Thunder stood in their way, en route to a 92-70 win over IWU in the CCIW Championship game Saturday night.

Illinois Wesleyan started the game on a 5-0 run in the first minute before the Thunder put up eight of the next ten points scored to come within one. The rest of the first quarter saw Wheaton chip away, and then build their own, lead. Wheaton would lead after the first quarter with a 27-21 lead. Despite the deficit, IWU shot the ball well in the high scoring first 10 minutes.

Offense would become much harder for the Titans in the second quarter, as IWU went scoreless for the first few minutes, allowing the Thunder lead to climb into double digits. Illinois Wesleyan could only hold the lead down to eleven points throughout the second stanza, heading into the halftime break trailing 37-48.

The second half began with a quick layup by Rebekah Ehresman, knocking the deficit down to just nine points. That Thunder advantage would hold for most of the first five minutes of the third quarter, then a large run would give the leaders of the CCIW their largest lead at 16 points.

The final quarter saw much of the same for the Titans, as the Thunder would continue to add to their lead, with a blistering shooting attack. The Thunder shot 54 percent from the field for the game, hitting 32 of their 56 shots.

Illinois Wesleyan finishes the year with a 17-10 mark overall, and a 11-4 record in CCIW play. Molly McGraw lead the Titans with 19 points.

LISTEN TO HEAD COACH MIA SMITH.