CHICAGO, Ill. -- Trailing 63-59 with 12 seconds left in regulation, the Illinois Wesleyan women's basketball team scored four straight points to force overtime before eventually pulling out a 72-71 victory at North Park on Saturday, Jan. 23. 

IWU remains in first place in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin with a 6-1 conference record and improves to 11-7 overall while the Vikings dropped their second straight game to fall to 13-5 overall and 4-3 in the CCIW. 

The Titans trailed by as many as 11 in the contest as North Park held a lead for 35:52 of the 45 minute game. After falling behind by a score of 12-6 early in the first quarter, Illinois Wesleyan tied the score at 15-15 to end the first quarter before trailing 31-25 at intermission. 

In the second half, the Vikings took their biggest lead of the game at 45-34 with 3:37 remaining in the third quarter before Illinois Wesleyan clawed their way back to take a 54-53 lead with 3:55 to go in regulation. With the game tied at 59-59 with 53 seconds left, North Park scored four straight points before an IWU layup by junior Gabrielle Holness was followed by two missed free throws by North Park. After the Titans got the ball back, sophomore Rebekah Ehresman was fouled and made two free throws to send the game into overtime.

In the extra five-minute period, the Vikings and Titans traded buckets with neither team building more than a two point lead. A pair of Maddie Merritt free throws gave Illinois Wesleyan a 71-69 lead with just over a minute left in the game. North Park responded with an easy layup before Ehresman was fouled with six seconds remaining where she would make one of two free throws to win the game. 

Ehresman finished with a career-high 28 points and pulled in six rebounds. Merritt had her first double-double of her collegiate career as the freshman poured in 15 points while adding a career-high 10 rebounds.

North Park was led by Liz Rehberger who had 27 points and six steals along with five rebounds. 

IWU was guilty of 24 turnovers compared to only 18 for North Park, but outrebounded the Vikings by a 47-34 margin. Each team scored 11 second chance points but the Titans tied a single-game team record with 10 blocked shots, equalling their total set against Wis.-Whitewater on Nov. 23, 2010.

"I'm really proud of this win," IWU head coach Mia Smith told WJBC Radio in an interview Saturday night. "Anytime you can squeak out a victory on the road over a team that is on your heels in the conference standings is a terrific win. I don't think many people thought we'd be 6-1 in the league at this point of the season but our tough non-conference games prepared us for this."

What's Next? 
The second half of the CCIW schedule gets underway with Illinois Wesleyan hosting Wheaton on Wednesday, Jan. 27 at 7 p.m. at the Shirk Center. The No. 24-ranked Thunder, who are currently second in the CCIW standings at 5-2, handed IWU their only conference loss of the year with a 72-66 home win and have won the last three games played between the two squads. The Thunder were 70-56 winners over Carthage on Saturday.