WHEATON, Ill. -- For the second straight season and the eighth time overall, the Illinois Wesleyan women's basketball team won the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin postseason tournament and receives the league's NCAA tournament automatic bid after a 69-68 win at Wheaton College on Saturday, Feb. 23.

With a win the No. 17-ranked Titans improved to 23-4 while No. 21-ranked Wheaton fell to 22-5. Only six other IWU teams in history have won more than 22 games. Go here to see season records.

The Titans will be making their third straight and 12th overall NCAA Division III tournament appearance. Illinois Wesleyan has an 18-11 national tourney record with the national championship in 2012 and a fourth place finish in 2011. IWU made six consecutive NCAA appearances from 2007-12, including advancing to the round of 16 in 2010 and the round of eight in 2009. Go here for all IWU tournament games.

The full national field will be announced on Monday, Feb. 25 at 1:30 p.m. (Central time) via an NCAA.com Selection Show.

IWU limited the Thunder to only eight points in the final six and a half minutes. In the fourth quarter, IWU rallied from a 60-54 deficit with 6:24 left and went on an 8-0 run to take a 62-60 lead at the 4:42 mark. Wth the game tied at 62-62, baskets by senior Maddie Merritt and sophomore Raven Hughes gave the Titans a 66-62 edge and free throws to close out from sophomore Kendall Sosa, senior Ashley Schneider and freshman Brooke Lansford sealed the win.

Schneider led all IWU scorers with 16 while Merritt got 15 and a team-high seven rebounds and Sosa added 12 points. The Titans were outrebounded by a 31-29 count but IWU was guilty of only nine turnovers in the contest while forcing the Thunder into 20 miscues that led to 24 IWU points.

Wheaton, who was the league's regular season champion, was led by the 25 points from Hannah Frazier and 10 rebounds from Devin Kyler.