The Carthage College women's basketball team (26-3, 13-1 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin), ranked ninth in the March 4 "D3hoops.com" poll, defeated No. 2 Hope College (28-1), 72-67, on Saturday, March 8 in a second-round game of the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.   

​In first-round action on Friday, March 7, Carthage defeated No. 36 St.  Norbert College (21-5), 60-51, and Hope (28-0) got by No. 29 Wisconsin Lutheran College (24-4), 60-54.  Carthage now advances to a third-round game against No. 3 DePauw University (29-1) on Friday, March 13 at a sectional site to be named by the NCAA on Sunday, March 9.
 
"We'd love to be here again next week," said Carthage coach Tim Bernero.  "We know we're playing the defending champs either way somewhere, and it's not foreign to us to play on the road and win in this tournament."
 
Carthage led most of the first half but not by much.  The Lady Reds took a seven-point lead, 22-15, at 7:22.  The Flying Dutch closed the gap to two points, 27-25, at 4:55, but Carthage pulled away to another seven-point lead the break, 34-27.  The Lady Reds were firing on all cylinders at the start of the second half and used a 15-7 run to go up by 15 points, 47-32, at 15:27.  Stephanie Kuzmanic scored seven of those 15 points on two jumpers, a layup and a free throw.
 
The Flying Dutch whittled the lead down to seven points, 52-45, at 11:09, and a three-pointer by Brittany Berry at 8:19 made it a three-point game, 54-51.  The Lady Reds went back up by 10 points, 66-56, at 3:52, with Michelle Wenzel scoring five of those 12 points on three free throws and a layup.  Carthage took an 11-point lead, 69-58, at 2:22 and still led by 11, 71-60, at 1:43.  Hope scored on four free throws and Kelly Morgan three-pointer in the final minute and a half, but the Lady Reds hung on for a five-point win, 72-67.
 
Carthage shot 49 percent (27-55), including seven of-nine from three-point range, while Hope shot just 37 percent (22-60), including 11-of-24 three-pointers.  The Lady Reds got to free-throw line 17 times and made 11, while the Flying Dutch connected on 12-of-14.  Hope out-rebounded Carthage by a 39-33 margin, with the Flying Dutch pulling down 17 offensive rebounds.
 
Three Carthage starters scored in double figures.  Michelle Wenzel (Sr., Darien, Wis./Delavan-Darien) led the way with a game-high 18 points on six-of-13 field goals and six-of-nine free throws, along with 14 rebounds.  Stephanie Kuzmanic (Sr., Mount Prospect, Ill./Wheeling) scored 16 points, 14 of those in the second half, on seven-of-16 shootings, along with five rebounds and four assists.  Kristi Schmidt (Sr., Bloomington, Ill./Normal-Community) added 12 points and five boards.  Brittany Berry led Hope with 16 points.  Maura McAfee had 14 points and a game-high 16 rebounds, and Anna Kaufmann added 13 points and seven assists.
 
"This game had a lot of ups and downs," said Carthage coach Tim Bernero.  "We were on the high end of it most of the time, but Hope is just so good.  At this point in the season, everything is a battle.  They were 28-0 for a reason, but and our kids were fantastic.  They did everything we asked them to.  It's hard to do that on 14 hours turnaround, but we executed, we kept our composure, and we didn't turn the ball over.  People were talking about Hope being 28-0, and we understood that, and we appreciate that.  I brought it up briefly right before the game, just saying it doesn't matter what our record is or their record is, we had to be 1-0 tonight and we were 1-0 tonight."