Wheaton College blows out Elmhurst College
Wheaton College never gave Elmhurst College a chance Friday night.
The Thunder outscored the Bluejays 21-9 in the first quarter on their way to a 82-50 victory in the CCIW women's basketball tournament semifinals at Wheaton. The top-seeded Thunder will host Illinois Wesleyan at 7 p.m. Saturday in the championship game with an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament at stake.
"It's very exciting," said Wheaton Warrenville South graduate Maggie Dansdill, who came off the bench to score 6 points. "We had to come in tough playing Elmhurst."
Wheaton (21-5) came in hot. The Thunder shot an impressive 58.8 percent from the field and made 8 of its 10 3-point shots.
"The energy was very good tonight and we were all just very focused," Dansdill added. "We just knew we had to just get it done and play great defense."
"We've finished this season pretty strong, especially on the defensive end," Thunder coach Kent Madsen said. "We've gotten pretty consistent defensively. Did I expect this type of score? No, because Elmhurst is a very good team. But I did think we defended well, but yet I thought we moved the ball extremely well on offense."
Elmhurst (13-13) made just 40 percent of its field-goal attempts, 35.3 percent of its 3s.
"Wheaton is a really good team," Elmhurst coach Tethnie Carrillo said. "I felt like we didn't quite play at our best. We didn't compete like we needed to compete on every possession. There were times that they beat us to loose balls and those are just situations that when you're in this type of a game and you're playing the No. 1 seed, you've got to fight a little bit harder to get those balls."
Katie McDaniels led the Thunder with 23 points and 7 assists. Kelly Lawson and Jennifer Berg each added 11 points. Wheaton North graduate Kelly Thornton scored 8 points.
"Katie McDaniels has had a phenomenal year, and she showed it again tonight," Madsen said "The entire team, I thought they were really good and very consistent offensively throughout, so I was very pleased with a lot of players tonight."
Mikaela Eppard scored 23 points for the Bluejays. West Chicago graduate Claire Monroe added 5 points plus 5 assists.
Because the game was a blowout, Madsen got his regulars more rest than usual.
"Thankfully, we were able to get some minutes down from the norm, so I think that is definitely going to be beneficial for tomorrow," Madsen said.
In the first semifinal Illinois Wesleyan held off North Central 96-84.
The Cardinals never led, but they did come within 6 points in the final minute.
Willowbrook graduate Anita Sterling scored 11 and grabbed 13 rebounds for the Cardinals, who also got 19 points from Mayson Whipple and 12 from Caroli Heimerdinger. Molly McGraw had 25 points for Illinois Wesleyan.
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