MARION, Ind. -- Indiana Wesleyan University women's basketball opened the Mid-Central College Conference Tournament with another 30-point victory over Spring Arbor (Mich.) University this season in the First Round game at Luckey Arena.

Indiana Wesleyan cruised to the 63-31 win after pulling off wins of 30 and 31 in the regular season.

With the win the top-seed Indiana Wesleyan advances to the MCC Tournament semifinals where they will face No. 4-seed Huntington (Ind.) University. The semifinal game will be at 7 p.m. on Friday, February 25 at Luckey Arena. IWU swept the regular season series with Huntington, including a 61-41 win at home on February 5.

The Wildcats never trailed on Tuesday and put the game out of reach very quickly. With the score tied at four, IWU went on a 15-0 run and held the Cougars scoreless for over nine minutes.

Spring Arbor junior guard Angela Russell hit back-to-back 3-pointers to end the Cougar drought which temporarily closed the gap to single digits at 19-10. But a Spring Arbor foul just four seconds later led to a pair of free throws for sophomore forward Paige Smith to increase the lead back to double digits. Spring Arbor was unable to get any closer the rest of the night.

At the tail end of the first half the Indiana Wesleyan defense once again took the game over. Spring Arbor hit two free throws with 3:39 left in the half and that would be the final points for a very long time for the visitors.

Indiana Wesleyan scored the final six points of the half to take a 31-15 lead into halftime.

The scoring drought continued for Spring Arbor for the first seven minutes of the stanza before a field goal by junior center Sarah Wellman finally broke a nearly 11-minute scoreless drought. In that time, Indiana Wesleyan scored 19 unanswered points to lead 44-15 with 12:59 remaining.

Indiana Wesleyan closed out the contest strong and the 32 point margin of victory was the largest of the evening.

The Wildcats limited the Cougars to 29.7-percent (11 of 37) shooting. IWU out-rebounded SAU 42-22 and kept the Cougars to just one offensive rebound. The Wildcats forced 26 turnovers on Tuesday while the Cougars only managed six assists.

Indiana Wesleyan shot 45.0-percent (27 of 60) on the night and had 23 more shot attempts than Spring Arbor.

Senior forward Elaine Hessel and junior center Krystal Stoneking led all players with 14 points and seven rebounds apiece. Senior forward LeAnn Douglas added 10 points and four steals while sophomore forward Paige Smith contributed eight points and six boards. Senior guard Kayla Thompson scored four points, pulled down five caroms and dished out a game-best six assists. Ten of the 11 Wildcats who played saw at least eight minutes of action.