ELMHURST, Ill. - The Elmhurst women's basketball team punched its ticket to the CCIW Tournament by scoring scoring a 95-85 victory over North Central College.
The win, coupled with a Carthage win over Millikin gave Elmhurst the fourth seed at the upcoming CCIW tournament. The Bluejays will face Carthage on Friday, February 28.
Leading by just one at the half, Elmhurst (14-11, 6-8) raced out to a double-digit lead in the second half, doubling up North Central (11-14, 5-9) 36-18 over the first 13 minutes of the second half.
The Cardinals answered back, ripping off a 15-2 run over two minutes of action to pull to within four points with five minutes to play. Five straight points by Fiona McMahon extended Elmhurst's lead back to nine. After a North Central free throw, Karen Senette hit a pair of free throws to put Elmhurst on top by 10 with 3:26 left on the clock.
North Central charged back with six straight points to close to within four with 2:30 left, but Elmhurst answered the challenge again. Katie Swanson and Senette hit a pair of free throws apiece to give Elmhurst an eight-point cushion with less than two minutes to play. McMahon registered her fourth block of the game on North Central's next possession and then hit a lay-up to give the Bluejays a 10-point lead and help put the game out of reach.
Elmhurst built a seven-point lead in the opening half only to see the Cardinals open up a three-point cushion with 1:30 remaining. A lay-up by Swanson and a bucket by Devin Vaughn gave Elmhurst a 41-40 lead at the break.
Elmhurst shot 48.5 percent (33-of-68) from the floor and survived North Central's wall-to-wall pressure defense.
McMahon poured in a season-high 29 points and and pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds in the win. McMahon shot 12-of-19 from the floor and also blocked four shots. Senette paced Elmhurst's attack in the second half, scoring 22 of her 24 points in the game's final 20 minutes. She added seven assists in the win. Swanson narrowly missed a triple-double, finishing with eight points, 10 rebounds, and a game-high 11 assists. Melanie Schwerdtmann added nine points while Claire Monroe and Vaughn scored eight points apiece.
Vaughn dished out two assists in the senior-night victory, tying Elmhurst's career record of 286 held by Heather McEnany (1998-2002).
North Central shot 38.5 percent (30-of-78) from the floor and were ice cold from downtown, hitting just 5-of-28 attempts (17.9 percent) of its shots from beyond the arc. Maryssa Cladis came off the bench to lead the Cardinals with 18 points. Marion Boeck scored eight and Uzuri Williams added nine points for the Cardinals.