The Carthage women's basketball team (14-9, 7-5 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin) defeated CCIW-opponent and No. 23 North Central College (20-3, 9-3, 2nd CCIW), 101-90, on Wednesday, Feb. 11 at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.  With the win, the Lady Reds remained in a third-place tie with Elmhurst College (14-9, 7-5).  The Bluejays were a 57-53 winner at North Park University on Wednesday.

Carthage forced North Central to partially-abandoned its vaunted three-point game.  The Cardinals, who had been averaging 54.50 three-point attempts per game, attempted only 15 treys in the first half and made just two.  Meanwhile, Carthage jumped out to a 12-0 lead at 15:25.  The Lady Reds opened up a 23-point lead, 38-15, at 5:11 and led by 20 at halftime, 49-29.  Carthage shot 47 percent in the first half (17-36) and attempted just one three-pointer, while North Central shot 28 percent (11-40).  The Lady Reds connected on 15-of-16 free throws in the first period.

Carthage maintained that margin for most of the second half, although North Central cut the lead to nine points, 99-90, with 39 second left.  The Lady Reds went on to win by 11 points, 101-90.

Carthage shot 54 percent (36-67), including just two-of-six three-pointers, while North Central shot just 36 percent (30-83), including 13-of-37 from three-point range.  The Lady Reds got to free-throw line 32 times and made 27, while the Cardinals connected on 17-of-22.  Carthage won the rebounding battle by a 48-39 margin

Alexis Hahn (Jr., Itasca, Ill./Roselle-Lake Park) led the Lady Reds with career highs of 34 points and 17 rebounds.  Hahn connected on 15-of-23 field-goal attempts and made four-of-five free throws, while dishing out four assists.  Taylor Boardman (Jr., Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln-Way North) had 18 points on eight-of-11 shooting, along with six boards before fouling out.  Allison Riley (Sr., Cudahy, Wis.) had 11 points, as did Morgan Harris (Fr., Arlington Heights, Ill./Hersey).  Harris also collected seven assists.  Erin Quinn (Sr., Island Lake, Ill./Mundelein-Carmel Catholic) added 10 points with six assist.  Tess Godhart led the Cardinals with 20 points on eight-of-16 field goals, along with nine rebounds, while Maryssa Cladis had 14 points with eight assists.

"When you play North Central," said Carthage coach Tim Bernero, "it's important to get off to a good start.  They have the capability to score in streaks.  We didn't do a good job in the first game of challenging their offense, and they went bananas.  We did a good job of taking their three-point game away, but they make things difficult by driving to the basket.  They got us in a little bit of foul trouble, and we had to work through that.  I thought all of our kids did a good job with the ball.  Alexis Hahn did a great job in the post, because they give you so much opportunity in the paint.  We did a good job of working the ball into the post.  We were also 27-of-32 from the free-throw line, and that's going to help you, no matter what they style of the game is.  We're not guaranteed a spot in the conference tournament yet, but this game was a big step in the right direction"

Carthage closes out its home-schedule on Saturday, Feb. 14 by playing host to conference-opponent and No. 16 Wheaton College (Ill., 21-2, 11-1 CCIW) in a 5 p.m. game, also at Tarble Arena.