The Carthage women's basketball team (15-9, 8-5 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin) closed out its home schedule on Saturday, Feb. 14 with a 72-70 overtime win over CCIW-opponent and No. 16 Wheaton College (Ill., 21-3, 11-2 CCIW) at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.

Wheaton came into the game having already clinched at least a share of the conference title, as well as the home court and the top seed for the Friday-Saturday, Feb. 27-28 CCIW Women's Basketball Tournament.  North Central College (20-4, 9-4, 2nd CCIW) remains in second place despite losing to Elmhurst College (15-9, 8-5), 91-64, on Saturday.  With the win, the Lady Reds remain in a third-place tie with Elmhurst. 

Carthage threw a zone defense at Wheaton in the first half and limited the Thunder to seven-of-27 field goals, including just one-of-eight from three-point range.  The Lady Reds shot a blistering 63 percent in the period (15-24).  Carthage opened up a 10-point lead, 14-4, at 14:02 and led by as much as 18 points, 34-16, with 42 second left.  The Lady Reds led by 15 at the break, 34-19.

The second half was a different story, as Wheaton came all the way back from an 18-point deficit.  The Thunder out-scored the Lady Reds, 42-27, in the second period.  Wheaton tied the game, 59-59, at 1:58 and took a two-point lead, 61-59, on a layup by Lauren Graham with 54 second left.  A pair of free throws by Alexis Hahn with 31 seconds remaining sent the game into overtime tied at 61 each.  The Thunder's last lead was 65-63 at 2:36 in overtime.  The Lady Reds took the lead for good, 68-65, on a three-pointer by Morgan Harris at 1:32, and Carthage held on to win by two, 72-70.

Carthage shot 51 percent (26-51), including six-of-19 three-pointers, while Wheaton shot just 36 percent (25-69), including seven-of-21 from three-point range.  The Lady Reds got to free-throw line 19 times and made 14, while the Thunder connected on 13-of-14.  Wheaton won the rebounding battle by a 43-29 margin

Alexis Hahn (Jr., Itasca, Ill./Roselle-Lake Park) led the Lady Reds with 24 points on eight-of-14 field goals, along with eight-of-nine free throws and four rebounds. Taylor Boardman (Jr., Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln-Way North) had 16 points on eight-of-12 shooting, along with five rebounds and five steals.  Katie McDaniels led the Thunder with 17 points and seven rebounds.  Ellie Zeller had 15 points and six boards, and Chantal Meacham added 12 points.

"Maybe this team is starting to figure things out," said Carthage coach Tim Bernero.  "Wheaton is a great defensive team, and for us to shoot 63 percent against them in the first half is a great credit to our kids and their ability to execute.  We have a bad habit of starting out the second half slow on defense, and Wheaton has so many good offensive players.  Once they spread us out, we had a hard time guarding them.  We did a good job of stabilizing things when Wheaton got the lead, and Morgan Harris made a huge shot to put us up by three to tip the scale up just a little bit.  The CCIW tournament is going to be tough, but I think we proved this week that we can beat both of the top-two teams, even though these two wins were in our building."

Carthage closes out its regular-season schedule next Saturday, Feb. 21 with a 5 p.m. game versus conference-opponent Millikin University (13-12, 4-9 CCIW) at the Griswold Center in Decatur, Ill.