MARION, Ind. -- No. 8-ranked Indiana Wesleyan University women's basketball completed the season sweep of Grant County rival Taylor (Ind.) University on Saturday in Luckey Arena with a 72-58 victory.

Indiana Wesleyan already won 72-43 on November 23, 2010 in Upland, Indiana in the rivals' first meeting of the season. IWU has now won 14 of the last 16 in the series.

The Wildcats took the ball to the paint despite the Trojan zone defense and scored at will down low in the opening half. IWU scored their first 30 points in the paint or at the free throw line. Sophomore guard Taylor Goshert drilled the first 3-pointer, and any field goal outside of the paint, for the Wildcats with 3:59 left before halftime.

Doing most of the damage for Indiana Wesleyan was the combo of senior forward Elaine Hessel and junior center Krystal Stoneking who combined for 36 points, exactly half of the IWU output. Stoneking led all players with 22 points on 7-of-10 shooting and 8-of-11 from the line while Hessel added 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting.

A Stoneking bucket at the midway point of the opening half ignited a 10-0 Wildcat run which pushed the IWU advantage to 29-17. The Wildcat lead remained in double digits the rest of the half, highlighted by their largest lead of 16 points when senior forward LeAnn Douglas scored for a 40-24 lead in the final minute of the half. A Trojan basket in the final seconds cut the deficit to 40-26 at the break.

Indiana Wesleyan (19-3, 8-1 MCC) maintained their large advantage throughout the first 10 minutes of the second half.

Taylor (13-10, 4-5 MCC) fought back once the lead grew to 15 points (58-43) for the Wildcats. The Taylor defense held the Indiana Wesleyan offense scoreless for the next 4:21 to claw back into the game. During that time, Taylor went on a 9-0 run to close within six at 58-52 and 5:19 to play.

But senior guard Kayla Thompson hit a big 3-pointer in the corner to put Indiana Wesleyan up nine at 61-52. The trey ignited a 10-1 IWU run that put the game on ice.

Taylor connected on one of two free throws on their next possession. Back on the Indiana Wesleyan side Stoneking would sink a pair of free throw opportunities as IWU once again led by 10 at 63-53 and 3:59 to play.

On the next two Wildcat possessions junior guard Stephanie Burtch scored from downtown and Thompson hit a runner to complete the run as IWU boasted a 68-53 lead.

Hessel sank two free throws with 1:39 to play as Indiana Wesleyan gained its largest lead of the afternoon at 72-55.

Indiana Wesleyan finished the contest shooting 52.1-percent (25 of 48) from the floor while holding Taylor to just 37.7-percent (20 of 53). IWU also out-rebounded TU 37-27. Stoneking led all players with nine rebounds and Douglas added seven.

Thompson ended with eight points and eight assists while Burtch also scored eight points.

Indiana Wesleyan will play their next two games on the road with the first of those two coming at Goshen (Ind.) College on Wednesday, January 26 at 7 p.m.