WHEATON, Ill. – The Elmhurst women's basketball team closed out its 2016-17 season with a heartbreaking 63-62 loss to Illinois Wesleyan in the first round of the CCIW Tournament.
The extremely close contest featured nine ties and 18 lead change. The largest lead for either squad was eight points.
Elmhurst (19-7) built an early 7-2 lead to start the game, but Illinois Wesleyan (18-8) responded with a 14-2 run over the next four minutes to open up a 16-9 lead. The Titans led by four points (16-12) after one quarter). Trailing by six early in the second quarter, the Bluejays ripped off an 8-0 run sparked by four points apiece from
Mikaela Eppard and
Michaela Kumer. The lead would change hands three times over the next four minutes before a Rebekah Ehresman jumper knotted the score at 28-28 at the half.
The third quarter was a back-and-forth affair as the lead changed hands eight times with neither squad leading by more than two points. A Nina Anderson three-pointer with just under a minute remaining in the quarter gave the Titans a one-point lead (44-43) entering the fourth quarter. After an Eppard jumper gave the Bluejays an early lead in the fourth, the Titans ripped off nine straight point, including seven from Sydney Shanks to build a 53-45 lead with five minutes remaining. Elmhurst stormed back with eight straight points to knot the score at 53-all with 3:28 left. Six straight points gave the Titans a 61-55 lead with just over a minute to play, but a
Kalia Summerlin three-pointer sliced the lead in half with 55 seconds left. After an IWU miss,
Hannah Henderson hit a pair of free throws to bring Elmhurst to within one point (61-60) with 20 seconds remaining. Two free throws from Amanda Kelly put the Titans back in front by three with 15 seconds left.
A
Kaela Jones three-pointer was off the mark, but
Hannah Lipman hit a putback layup with just under four seconds left on the clock. Elmhurst fouled the Titans on the inbounds with 2.9 seconds left. Molly McGraw missed both free throws, but the Bluejays did not have enough time to get a shot off before the horn sounded.
Elmhurst outshot the Titans 42.6 percent (20-of-47) to 37.1 percent (23-of-62) from the floor. The Titans shot 66.7 percent (6-of-9) from downtown while the Bluejays hit just 4-of-11 (36.4 percent) from downtown. Entering the game as the CCIW leader in free throw percentage, the Bluejays struggled from the stripe, hitting just 69.2 percent (18-of-26). IWU knocked down 11-of-17 attempts (64.7 percent) from the free throw line. Elmhurst won the battle on the glass, outrebounding the Titans 44-31, but the Bluejays turned the ball over 20 times leading to 18 points for the Titans.
Eppard led the Bluejays with a double-double of 16 points and 17 rebounds. Her 17 rebounds set a new-single game CCIW Tournament record.
Hannah Lipman added 12 points and seven boards while
Michaela Kumer came off the bench to total 10 points and six rebounds. Summerlin finished with nine points while Jones totaled five for Elmhurst.
Shanks poured in a game-high 17 points to lead the Titans in the win. She scored over half of her points (nine) in the fourth quarter. Ehresman added 11 points before fouling out in the fourth quarter. Kelly finished with nine points while McGraw and Maddie Merritt scored eight points apiece.
Elmhurst finished the season with a 19-7 record and 11-5 CCIW mark. The 19 wins is the most wins in a regular season since the 1985-86 squad posted a 24-3 record. The 11 CCIW wins is the most since the 1990-91 season when the team won 11.
