No. 9 Carthage (26-4) saw its season end on Friday, March 14 with a 73-54 loss to defending-national-champion and No. 3 DePauw 30-1) in a third-round game of the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship at DePauw's Raymond "Gaumey" Neal Fieldhouse in Greencastle, Ind. 

In the other third-round game at DePauw, national-runner-up and No. 13 UW-Whitewater (25-4) defeated No. 12 UW-Oshkosh (26-4), 69-57, as the Warhawks' Mary Merg scored 23 points.  In a re-match of last year's national-championship game, DePauw takes on Wisconsin-Whitewater in the sectional-championship game on Saturday, March 15 at 7 p.m., EDT.
 
Carthage defeated No. 2 Hope College (28-1), 72-67, on Saturday, March 8 in a second-round game 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.
 
In the third-round loss to DePauw, Carthage led most of first half.  The Lady Reds scored the first seven points of the game and led, 11-5 at 15:52 as Michelle Wenzel connected on her first three field goals.  Carthage led by eight points, 19-11, at 10:12, but DePauw tied the game, 19-19, at 7:13.  With the game tied, 24-24, at 4:42, DePauw closed out the half on an 11-2 run.  A three-point play by the Tigers' Ali Ross at 3:44 gave DePauw its first lead, 27-24.  A three-pointer by Alex Gasway at 3:01 gave the Tigers a six-point lead, 30-24.  Ross hit the front end of a one-and-one free throw with 47 seconds left to make it 33-26, and Gasway connected on a jumper with seven seconds on the clock to make it 35-26 at halftime.
 
The Tigers went up by 12 points, 40-28, at 18:10 second period on a three-pointer by Hannah Douglas.  DePauw took a 13-point lead, 46-33, at 15:16 on a jumper by Savannah Trees, and the Tigers made it a 15-point game, 48-33, at 14:28 on a jumper by Ross.  The lead went to 17 points, 52-35, at 11:40.  Things continued to go DePauw's way, as Lauren Abendroth connected on a three-pointer with one second left on the shot clock, putting the Tigers up by 18, 55-37, at 10:10.  DePauw upped its lead to 21 points, 62-41, at 7:30, and the lead went to 25 points, 68-43, at 5:52.  DePauw took it largest lead at 28 points, 73-45, at 3:56 and went on to win by 19, 73-54.
 
DePauw shot 46 percent (29-53), including seven of-18 from three-point range, while Carthage shot 42 percent (22-53), including three-of-11 three-pointers.  The Tigers got to free-throw line 10 times and made eight, while the Lady Reds connected on seven-of-eight.  DePauw had a narrow, 34-31 rebounding advantage, while Carthage turned the ball over 13 times to just six for DePauw.
 
Savannah Trees led the Tigers with 20 points on eight-of-12 field goals and four-of-four free throws, while Alex Gasaway had 18 points on eight-of-14 shooting.  Michelle Wenzel (Sr., Darien, Wis./Delavan-Darien) led Carthage with 14 points on seven-of-11 field goals and five rebounds, while Kristi Schmidt (Sr., Bloomington, Ill./Normal-Community) had 13 points on four-of-nine shooting and five-of-six free throws.  Stephanie Kuzmanic (Sr., Mount Prospect, Ill./Wheeling), while limited to four points, dished out a game-high nine assists.

"We got off to a really nice start," said Carthage coach Tim Bernero.  "We had our offense going and thought we were guarding them pretty well. We hit a little bump in the first half and lost control of them on our defensive end. Then we hit a spot where we didn't score for awhile. We thought it was still manageable at halftime at nine points, but they started making shots and the snowball starting rolling and we couldn't stop it."