BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- The No. 14-ranked Illinois Wesleyan women's basketball team staved off a late rally by North Central and took an 82-77 win over the Cardinals at the Shirk Center on Wednesday, Jan. 16.
The Titans improved to 14-3 and 7-1 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin while the Cardinals are 3-14 overall and 1-7 in the league. Illinois Wesleyan is in a first place tie in the CCIW after Wheaton suffered a 56-51 loss at Augustana on Wednesday night.
Senior
Maddie Merritt led IWU with 19 points and connected on 15 of 16 free throws. The 15 free throws are the third most in an IWU game and the 16 tries is tied for second most.
Sophomore
Raven Hughes scored 16 points and had a team-high seven rebounds and sophomore
Sam Munroe came off the bench to net 16 points, get four boards and hand out four assists. Sophomore
Kendall Sosa scored 12 points.
The Cardinals got 22 points from Alanna Newsome and 19 points from Tyonne Howard. Lyndsay Brennan grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds as IWU outrebounded the Cardinals 37-36. North Central was guilty of 23 turnovers compared to 12 for Illinois Wesleyan and the Titans scored 25 points off Cardinal miscues.
The Titans got off to a sluggish start and trailed by six at 19-13 after one quarter and by a 33-30 score at halftime. But IWU outscored the Cardinals by a 25-8 margin in the third quarter to claim a 55-41 lead after three quarters. The Cardinals trailed by as many as 16 (66-50) with 6:11 to play but crawled back to within three points at 80-77 with nine seconds left.but free throws by Merritt, who made nine of 10 in the final period alone, sealed the game.
What's Next?
Illinois Wesleyan will have its annual "Not So Pink Zone" game on Saturday, Jan. 19, hosting Augustana at 5 p.m. at the Shirk Center. Raffle tickets are $10 with all proceeds going to the Bloomington-Normal Community Cancer Center. Prizes include two round-trip airplane tickets to anywhere in the contiguous U.S., a Fitbit, a 42-inch TV, and cash. Fewer than 350 tickets remain and may be purchased at the Shirk Center Athletic Offices this week from 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
