Wheaton Box Score
WHEATON, Ill. - The Elmhurst College women's basketball team had its three game winning streak snapped with a 66-61 loss at Wheaton College. Elmhurst fell to 8-5 overall and 1-1 in CCIW play, while Wheaton moved to 7-6 overall and 2-0 in league play.
Lyndsie Long poured in a career-high 29 points and grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds to lead the Bluejays, but it wasn't enough to help Elmhurst overcome 21 turnovers that led to 23 points for Wheaton.
Wheaton opened up a 13-point first half lead before Elmhurst mounted a charge and pulled to within three points (34-31) at halftime.
In the second half, the Bluejays chipped away at the Thunder lead and gained its first led with just under 13 minutes to play on a jumper by Long. Elmhurst slowly built a seven point lead and led 59-53 with 5:30 left to play, but a 6-0 run by Wheaton evened the score at 59-all with 3:14 left. Long put the Bluejays back up with a bucket with 2:29 remaining, but Wheaton's Jamie Jones splashed home a 3-pointer with 1:31 left to put the Thunder up for good.
Elmhurst had second and third chance opportunities on its next possession, but the Bluejays' couldn't get the ball to drop. Wheaton's Kathleen Fidelia hit a lay-up with 49 seconds left to put the Thunder up by three. Fidelia sealed the game in the closing seconds with a pair of free throws.
Elmhurst shot 34.3 percent (23-of-67) from the floor and only 28.6 percent (4-of-14) from downtown. Wheaton finished the game shooting 36.1 percent (26-of-72) from the field, including 35.3 percent (6-of-17) from beyond the arc. Elmhurst had 52-45 edge on the glass.
Long finished with 29 points on 11-of-23 shooting while pulling down 15 rebounds. She now stands at 990 career points and needs only 10 more points to total 1,000 in her career. Kelsey Monroe added 13 points while Maggie McTeague came off the bench to score seven. Brittany Bobruk totaled 12 rebounds in the loss.
Fidelia led the Thunder with 22 points, six rebounds, and six steals. Jones finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds while Annie Bowen totaled 11 points and 15 boards.
Elmhurst hosts North Central College on Friday, January 16, at 7:00 p.m.
