On February 16, Spring Arbor pulled off a stunning defeat of then No. 5-ranked Indiana Wesleyan by a 68-60 margin in Spring Arbor, Michigan. At the time, Spring Arbor was just 3-20.
Tuesday was another story as the tournament's top-seed Indiana Wesleyan took care of business in a huge way to advance to the conference semifinals.
"We came out here tonight with a little fire," said Indiana Wesleyan head coach Steve Brooks. "We attacked the basket and we hit some open shots."
Indiana Wesleyan (26-5) scored the game's first 10 points en route to building a 27-4 lead before the midway point of the opening half. Junior forward Elaine Hessel, newly anointed MCC Player of the Year, scored the first seven points of the contest.
The Wildcat lead peaked at the 7:56 mark in the half when sophomore guard Ashley Brooks hit two free throws for a 24 point lead at 33-9.
Indiana Wesleyan matched the first half lead of 24 points with eight seconds left before halftime, but a field goal by Spring Arbor sophomore guard Courtney Smith at the buzzer brought the halftime score to 46-24.
In the first 20 minutes of the contest, Indiana Wesleyan forced Spring Arbor into 16 turnovers.
"I really liked our defensive effort tonight," said Brooks. "We didn't allow them to score many easy baskets down low and we played well on the perimeter."
Spring Arbor (4-24) never challenged in the second half as pair of free throws 17 seconds in brought the score to the closest it would be the rest of the way at 46-26.
Indiana Wesleyan slowly increased the advantage over Spring Arbor and reached a 30 point lead at 69-39 
with 9:47 to play on a 3-point basket by junior forward LeAnn Douglas.
The final score of 85-45 was the largest lead of the night for the Wildcats.
Wildcat junior forward Elaine Hessel and sophomore guard Rachel Steinbarger scored 14 points apiece and junior guard Kayla Thompson added 12 points, eight rebounds, five assists and four steals.
"We were really balanced in our scoring and had a lot of contribution from the bench," stated Brooks. "Krystal (Stoneking) came in and gave us a lot of good minutes due to some foul trouble and Ashley (Brooks) played well again. Taylor (Goshert) was another who has been practicing real well and is giving us good minutes on the court."
The Indiana Wesleyan bench scored 35 points and was led by sophomore center Krystal Stoneking with 14 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Sophomore guard Ashley Brooks recorded a career-high nine points while freshman guard Taylor Goshert chipped in six.
The victory over Spring Arbor moves Indiana Wesleyan into a semifinal contest with No. 5-seed Marian (Ind.) University. Marian went into No. 4-seed Taylor (Ind.) University and pulled out a 64-50 road victory.
Indiana Wesleyan won both meetings during the regular season against Marian. IWU shut down Marian 55-40 on January 13 in Marion and again on February 13 in Indianapolis with a 73-52 win.
Brooks said, "We are going to have to step it up another notch defensively in our next game. We were able to put the earlier loss to Spring Arbor behind us tonight so now we have two days to refocus ourselves on Marian."
The tip-off for the semifinal game will be at 7 p.m. on Friday, February 26 in Luckey Arena.
