The Carthage women's basketball team (5-3, 0-0 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) opened play at the Eckerd College "St. Pete Classic" on Friday afternoon, Dec. 19 with a 63-48 win over Messiah College (5-5) at the McArthur Center in St. Petersburg, Fla. 

Except for a few minutes midway thru the first period, Carthage led the entire game.  The Lady Reds had a three-point margin at halftime, 27-24, before edging out to an eight-point lead, 38-30, at 13:54 second half.  Messiah got back to four point on two occasions, the last time at 40-36 with 9:58 to play.  From there, the Lady Reds used an 18-5 run to go up by 17, 58-41, at 3:48.  The lead went to 18 points, 63-45, with 1:31 left, as Carthage cruised to a 15-point win, 63-48.

The Lady Reds shot 51 percent (26-51), including a sizzling 65 percent in the second half (15-23), and six-of-11 three-pointers.  The Falcons connected at just a 36 percent rate (16-44), including six-of-16 from three-point range.  Carthage was five-of-12 from the free-throw line, while Messiah converted 10-of-15.  The Lady Reds enjoyed a 34-26 rebounding advantage.

Carthage's Alexis Hahn (Jr., Itasca, Ill./Roselle-Lake Park) led all scorers with 18 points on eight-of-17 field goals, along with six rebounds.  Kasey Kleiner (Sr., South Milwaukee, Wis./Somers-Shoreland Lutheran), with four-straight three-pointers late in the second half, scored 17 points on six-of-nine shooting, including five-of-seven threes.  Erin Thomas (Jr., Spring Grove, Ill./Richmond-Burton) had 10 points, and Taylor Boardman (Jr., Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln-Way North) added eight points with a game-high nine rebounds.  Dominique Seamon and Kaitlyn Hoff had 11 points each for the Falcons.

"We did a really good job today," said Carthage coach Tim Bernero.  "Messiah is a very good basketball team, and you're not going to fool them.  We had a good game plan, but we had to play well.  We mixed up defenses to keep them out of rhythm a little bit.  There's a rhythm to the game, and once Kasey Kleiner got going, she put the game away.  Erin Thomas and Morgan Harris also played really well.  Messiah is an NCAA-tournament-type team, as we are, but we're both finding our way with a new group.  Today, we did a great job of executing, and it was fun."

Carthage takes on Wells College (2-4) on Saturday, Dec. 20 at 8 p.m., EST.  Wells was an 89-45 loser to Wisconsin Lutheran College in Friday's first tournament game.