The Carthage College women's basketball team (1-1, 0-0 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin), ranked No. 20 in the Women's Basketball Coaches Association/USA Today NCAA Division III poll and No. 28 in the "D3hoops.com" pre-season poll, lost to Luther College (2-0), 76-62, on Sunday afternoon, Nov. 16 in the championship game of the Wisconsin-Stevens Point "Pointers Tip-Off Tournament" at the Berg Gymnasium in Stevens Point, Wis. 

The Lady Reds opened their 2014-15 season on Saturday, Nov. 15 with a 70-49 win over Ripon College (0-1) in a first-round game.  Luther College (1-0) was a 61-56 winner over UW-Stevens Point (0-1) in the other first-round contest.

In the loss to Luther, Carthage was nursing a 21-20 lead with 4:21 to play in the first half when the Norse took off on a 15-4 run to go up by 10 points, 35-25, with 1:50 to play.  Meagan Koepnick scored seven of those 15 points on a three-pointer, a layup and a pair of free throws.  Luther led by eight at the break, 37-29.  The Norse extended their lead to 13 points, 42-29, at 19:01 second period and to 15 points, 48-33, at 16:05.

The Lady Reds mounted a furious comeback, using a 20-5 run to tie the game, 53-53, at 5:56.  Back-to-back three-pointers by Kylie Romeo at 3:42 and 3:27 and a three by Koepnick at 2:53 put Luther back up by 11 points, 68-57.  The Norse went on to win by 14, 76-62.

Luther shot 39 percent (23-59), including 12-of-26 three-pointers, while Carthage shot 47 percent (20-43) but just two-of-15 from three-point range.  The Norse connected on 18-of-21 from the free-throw line, while the Lady Reds converted 20-of-25.  Carthage out-rebounded Luther by a 36-28 margin, but the Norse's pressure defense led to 26 Lady Reds turnovers to just 11 for Luther.

Meagan Koepnick and Kylie Romeo each scored a game-high 22 points for Luther.  Erin Quinn (Sr., Island Lake, Ill./Mundelein-Carmel Catholic) led the Lady Reds with 19 points on seven-of-nine field goals and five-of-five free throws, along with six rebounds and four assists.  Alexis Hahn (Jr., Itasca, Ill./Roselle-Lake Park) had 15 points on four-of-seven shooting and seven-of-eight free throws, along with 10 rebounds.  Taylor Boardman added 13 points and a game-high 11 boards.  Kasey Kleiner (Sr., South Milwaukee, Wis./Somers-Shoreland Lutheran), who scored 19 points in the first-round win over Ripon, was named to the all-tournament team.

Carthage plays host to Wisconsin-La Crosse on Saturday, Nov. 22 in a 2 p.m. contest at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.