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Women's hoops starters
53
Wash. & Jeff. WJC 22-7,14-2 PAC
61
Winner Ill. Wesleyan IWU 23-5,15-1 CCIW
Wash. & Jeff. WJC
22-7,14-2 PAC
53
Final
61
Ill. Wesleyan IWU
23-5,15-1 CCIW
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Wash. & Jeff. WJC 16 10 11 16 53
Ill. Wesleyan IWU 14 17 20 10 61

Game Recap: Women's Basketball |

Women’s Hoops Pushes Past Presidents

Titans advance to second round for third straight season

Postgame Press Conference

HOLLAND, Mich. - A strong second half sent the No. 13 Illinois Wesleyan University women's basketball team into the second round of the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Tournament as the Titans took down Washington & Jefferson College, 61-53, at DeVos Fieldhouse. IWU advances to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the third straight year and moves to 23-5 with the win, while W&J's season ends at 22-7.

Senior Sara Balli (Bloomingdale, Ill.-Lake Park) turned in a game-high 17 points on 8-of-12 shooting and added eight rebounds. Classmate Ava Bardic (Lincolnshire, Ill.-Stevenson) chipped in 15 points. Redshirt freshman Leah Palmer (Geneva, Ill.-Geneva) scored seven points with a team-high 10 rebounds off the bench. In an all-around effort, senior Sawyer White (Downers Grove, Ill.-Montini Catholic) and freshman Asia Kobylarczyk (Park Ridge, Ill.-Maine South) stuffed the stat sheet. White went for seven points, five assists, and eight steals, while Koblyarczyk had eight points alongside seven caroms.

Illinois Wesleyan shot 23-for-63 on the night and just 4-of-19 from beyond the arc. IWU went 11-of-19 at the free throw line. W&J fared slightly better from the field, going 20-of-48 overall, but just 4-of-15 from three-point range. The Presidents knocked down nine free throws on 11 tries. The Titans feasted on 28 W&J turnovers to manufacture 24 points. IWU also held an edge in rebounding (37-35), fastbreak scoring (10-0), points in the paint (36-30), and second-chance scoring (15-8). 

Defense was the catalyst for an eager offense as steals by freshman Caitlin Leyden (Park Ridge, Ill.-Maine South) and White led to a 4-0 advantage. The Presidents came back with a short spurt before converting on an and-one towards the end of the quarter to move in front, 16-14. 

W&J scored seven of the first nine points in the second period to expand its lead to seven, 23-16, with six minutes to go in the half.

A timely offensive rebound by sophomore Alyssa Epps (Berkeley, Ill.-Montini Catholic) led to a three-pointer by Bardic as Kobylarczyk made an extra pass to find the open shot. Balli bullied her way through the Washington & Jefferson defense to pull the Titans within two, 23-21, into a timeout.

The Presidents broke a three and a half-minute scoring drought with a bucket out of the reset, but the Green and White rattled off the next eight points to turn the tables. After Epps knocked down a free throw, White picked the pockets of the Presidents and hit Balli for a layup in transition. Another swipe, this time from Kobylarczyk, along with a pair of offensive rebounds cued up another Bardic triple. Palmer tacked on a pair of free throws with 45.2 ticks on the clock to stretch IWU's edge to six, 31-25. A free throw by W&J sent Illinois Wesleyan into halftime with a 31-26 lead.

The Titans busted the game open with a strong third quarter, taking control behind a 15-6 run. Balli and Kobylarczyk  scored four points apiece while Palmer, Epps, and freshman Rena Robinson (San Jose, Calif-Archbishop Mitty) added buckets along the way to catapult IWU ahead, 51-37, into the final stanza.

Balli remained red-hot in the fourth, scoring two quick buckets before Bardic found White for a layup to extend the margin to 20. 

The Presidents used a seven-point run to grab momentum, but Kobylarczyk converted a pair of layups off assists by Epps and White to power the Titans to the victory, 61-53.

Illinois Wesleyan will meet the winner of tonight's other opening round game between Hope and Penn State-Behrend. Tipoff is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. ET tomorrow, March 7.
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