QUINCY, Ill. –  Senior Molly McGraw scored eight points in the final quarter while junior Maddie Merritt added seven to propel the Illinois Wesleyan women's basketball team to a 78-70 exhibition win over Division II Quincy at the Pepsi Arena in Quincy, Ill., on Sunday, Nov. 5.
 
McGraw finished with a game-high 18 points while Merritt had 17 and senior Rebekah Ehresman scored 12. IWU oustcored the Hawks, 19-11 in the third stanza and 46-29 in the second half.
 
Sophomore Sydney Shanks added seven points and had a team-high seven rebounds as IWU held a 29-23 rebound edge over the Hawks.
 
Quincy, picked to finish fifth in the preseason coaches poll in the Central Division of the Great Lakes Valley Conference, lost an earlier exhibition game at Division I Western Illinois, 87-50. Maddie Spagnola scored 17 and Julia Ruzevich scored 15 to pace the Hawks.
 
Both teams were torrid in the first half with the Hawks shooting 58/1 percent (18 of 31) and IWU shooting 56.5 percent (13 of 23). But Quincy managed just 34.4 percent shooting in the final half (10 of 29) as the Titans shot 51.4 percent (18 of 35).
 
The Titans jumped out to an early 11-4 lead but trailed 20-18 after the first quarter, then trailed by as many as 11 at 41-30 before the 41-32 intermission score.
 
Quincy held onto an 11-point edge at 47-36 with 8:03 left in the third quarter before the Titans went on a 15-3 run and took a 51-50 lead on a McGraw basket with 1:36 left in the third.
 
The Hawks had their 52-51 lead heading into the final period erased by a McGraw 3-pointer, giving the Titans a 54-52 lead which they would increase to 60-52 with 7:30 remaining. Quincy never got closer than two (60-58 with 5:49 left) the rest of the game.
 
Illinois Wesleyan opens its regular season on Friday, Nov. 17, against Colorado College in the University of Chicago Maroon Invitational. IWU then faces Chicago on Saturday, Nov. 18.