The Carthage College women's basketball team (4-0, 0-0 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked 30th in the pre-season USA Today/ESPN/Women's Basketball Coaches Association NCAA Division III poll and 48th in the "D3hoops.com" poll, upended Benedictine University (Ill., 1-3), 69-49, on Tuesday, Nov. 22 at the Dan & Ada Rice Center in Lisle, Ill.

Carthage took a seven-point lead, 20-13, at 7:57 first half.  The lead went to nine points, 25-16, at 4:45.  An eight-point run by the Eagles closed to gap to one point, 25-24, at 3:03.  Benedictine went up by three, 30-27, in the final minute of the first period, but Carthage led by a point at the break, 31-30.  The Lady Reds scored the first 15 points of the second half to take a 46-30 lead at 13:35.  Cailee Corcoran scored seven of those 15 points on three field goals and a free throw.  The Eagles, unable to convert a field goal until the 13:08 mark, never got any closer than 12 points in the second half.  The Lady Reds went up by 18 points, 67-49, at 2:39 and went on to win by 20, 69-49.

Carthage shot 48 percent (27-56), while Benedictine (Ill.) connected at just 30 percent (11-37).  The Lady Reds out-rebounded the Eagles by a 36-31 margin.  Carthage's Cailee Corcoran (Jr. Oak Lawn, Ill./Chicago Marist) led the way with 16 points on seven-of-12 field goals, along with six rebounds.  Diana Jacklin (Sr., Berwyn, Ill./Morton West) had 11 points on five-of-seven shooting, along with seven boards, and Kristi Schmidt (So., Bloomington, Ill./Normal-Community) chipped in 10 points.  Benedictine's Megan Novak led all scorers with 20 points on just three-of-six field goals but 12-of-12 free throws, along with six rebounds.  On Sunday, Nov. 27, the Lady Reds travel to Chicago to take on No. 2 the University of Chicago in a 2 p.m. game at the Gerald Ratner Athletics Center.

"The last game before a holiday can be tough," admitted Carthage coach Tim Bernero.  "Not that Benedictine didn't do a good job, but we didn't do what I set out to do, which was to keep them off the free-throw line.  We got that straightened out in the second half.  We knew they were going to play a zone on us, and we got a little stagnant playing against it.  Once we got kick-started and made a few shots, we did a better job of things.  It took us awhile to make the adjustments to the game that was being called.  We could have avoided giving them so many points in the first half.  Once we stopped fouling them and got into more of an open-court rhythm, we started playing more of our game.  If we play like this against the University of Chicago on Sunday, it'll be a different story, because they are that good.  This is key regional game on Sunday and a great game to play.  They have five starters back from an "elite eight" team, and we should expect them to be as good or better than last year."