Box Score

WHEATON, Ill. – Making its second-ever CCIW Tournament appearance, Augustana ran into a hot-shooting Wheaton outfit in the semifinals Friday and fell 96-66 at King Arena. Coach Mark Beinborn's squad finishes the year at 17-9, logging the program's most victories in 24 years. The top-seeded Thunder, champions of the CCIW regular season, improved to 22-4 and advanced to the championship game against Illinois Wesleyan on Saturday, February 25 at 7:00 p.m.
 
Senior Olivia Mayer (Libertyville HS, Green Oaks, Ill.) gave the Vikings the lead with a conventional three-point play on the game's first possession and Augustana hung tight early. A Corrie Reiley (Prophetstown HS, Prophetstown, Ill.) three-pointer with 6:28 left in the first quarter gave the fourth-seeded visitors a 12-7 lead—their biggest of the night.
 
Carly McCameron's put-back at the 3:45 mark of the first put the Vikings up one final time (17-16) before Wheaton closed the period on a 14-2 run to go up 30-19. Chantal Meacham hit a pair of three-point field goals in the Thunder's outburst.
 
The hosts stayed red-hot in the second quarter, extending the lead to 20 (49-29) on a Maggie Dansdill layup at the 3:06 mark and again (52-32) at 2:41 on an Ellie Zeller trey. Sophomore Izzy Anderson (Alleman HS, Rock Island, Ill.) scored four points as Augustana closed the half with a 7-2 spurt and cut the deficit to 54-39 at halftime. Wheaton went to the locker room shooting .629 (22-35) from the field.
 
Although their shooting dropped of slightly in the second half, the Thunder steadily built on the advantage in the third quarter, going up by as many as 28 (77-49) before finishing the period with a 77-51 lead. A layup by Katie McDaniels—this year's CCIW Most Outstanding Player—with four minutes left in the game gave Wheaton its largest lead of the game at 92-61. Beinborn cleared his bench with just under two minutes to play.
 
Mayer led Augustana with 13 points and three assists. She finished five of seven from the floor and hit all three of her free throw attempts. Classmate Mikayla Fallon (United Township HS, East Moline, Ill.) went six of six from the line and added 10 points. Senior Kaycee Kallenberger (Pleasant Valley HS, Bettendorf, Iowa) and Anderson chipped in with nine points apiece and sophomore Clare Kramer (Prophetstown HS, Lyndon, Ill.) returned from an injury that kept her out for 15 games to toss in seven. McDaniels led Wheaton with 21 points and Meacham hit six of nine three-pointers and added 20.
 
Kallenberger snared 14 rebounds to push her season total to 299—a new school record.
 
The Vikings finished 23 of 60 (.383) from the field, four of 16 (.250) from three-point range and 16 of 21 (.762) at the foul line. The Thunder shot .590 (36-61) from the floor, .444 (8-18) from beyond the arc and .667 (16-24) from the free throw line. Augustana won the battle of the boards 38 to 29, but committed 19 turnovers to just 10 for Wheaton.