The Carthage College women's basketball team (25-3, 13-1 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin), ranked ninth in the March 4 "D3hoops.com" poll, defeated No. 36 St. Norbert College (21-5), 60-51, on Friday, March 7 in a first-round game in the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.
In the other first-round contest, No. 2 Hope College (28-0) got by No. 29 Wisconsin Lutheran College (24-4), 60-54. Carthage takes on Hope in a second-round game on Saturday, March 8 at 7 p.m., also at Tarble Arena.
In front of an enthusiastic crowd of 1,275, a record for women's basketball at Tarble Arena, Carthage jumped out to 12-0 lead at 16:14, but St. Norbert closed to five points, 30-25, at 1:55, and to three points, 30-27, with 56 seconds to play. The Lady Reds led by five at the break, 32-27. The Green Knights closed to within four points early in the second half, 34-30, at 17:44, before Carthage went up by 10, 40-30, at 13:51. St. Norbert never got any closer than eight points the rest of the way, as the Lady Reds led by as much as 13 points, 56-43, at 3:34 and went on to win by nine, 60-51.
Carthage shot 42 percent (24-57), including four of-14 from three-point range, while St. Norbert shot 40 percent (18-45), including four-of-16 three-pointers. The Lady Reds got to free-throw line 12 times and made eight, while the Green Knights connected on 11-of-17. Carthage had a narrow, 34-32 rebounding advantage.
The Lady Reds' Stephanie Kuzmanic (Sr., Mount Prospect, Ill./Wheeling) led all scorers with 25 points on 10-of-18 field goals, including three-of-seven three-pointers, along with two-of-four free throws, five rebounds and seven assists. The point guard scored 17 of her 25 points in the first half, including two three-pointers and a jumper in Carthage's game-opening, 12-0 run. Michelle Wenzel (Sr., Darien, Wis./Delavan-Darien) was the only other Carthage player in double figures with 10 points on four-of-nine shooting, along with seven rebounds. Brianna Byrne led St. Norbert with 16 points on six-of-10 field goals, while Jill Kleimaan added 11 points and seven boards.
"We got off to the good start that we were hoping for," said Carthage coach Tim Bernero. St. Norbert is tough. They're hard to guard, because they just keep moving, running through screens and posting up players, and we were able to get space from them and hold them of at about eight or ten points and just finish it off. This time of year, people talk about what you get in the bracket and who you're playing…you're not getting an easy game no matter where you go. You know every team you're going to play, and you're going to need to play good basketball to win. What we talked about at half was that we probably guarded them great for twenty seconds, then they broke us down. We just didn't commit to getting in front of them. We did a much better job in the second half. We just made it a little tougher for them to get to the rim, and we wanted to turn them into a little more of a perimeter shooting team, and they ended up four-for-16, so that's kind of what we were hoping.
"We've waited four years to host this tournament," said Carthage's Stephanie Kuzmanic, "so to have that home court advantage and have your friends and your family actually be able to be there was huge for us. I think the energy, just coming from that run we had in the beginning of the game, really set the tone for the rest of the day."
In Hope's win over Wisconsin Lutheran, the Flying Dutch trailed most of the first half before taking a five-point lead at the break, 31-26. Hope never trailed in the second half, although the Warriors pulled to within a point twice and never trailed by more than six points after the opening seconds. Hannah Doell led the Flying Dutch with 15 points on seven-of-11 field goals, along with nine rebounds, while Maura McAfee had 13 points. Kristen Schulz led Wisconsin Lutheran with 15 points and a game-high 18 boards.
"We faced a great team in Wisconsin Lutheran," said Hope coach Brian Morehouse. This was the second time we've played them this year and a second really great game we've had with them. They're a talented team and Kristen Schulz really headlines things for them, and she did not disappoint tonight. She was fantastic. I thought in the first half, we played a little frenzied, which is normal, it's the NCAA tournament. We're all very excited. We settled down, we cut into the lead and we were a little bit more poised. In the second half, I thought it was just a great twenty minutes of basketball. We played well and we managed to come out ahead. Great win, we're happy to be advancing."