LAS VEGAS – The Carthage College women's basketball team returned to action Monday, December 28th in the D3hoops.com Classic at Las Vegas' South Point Casino, as the Lady Reds fell to reigning national runner-up, the George Fox University Bruins, 72-57.
"I liked how we played today," said head coach Tim Bernero. "I think taking away the first couple minutes of the first quarter and last five minutes of the fourth quarter would have given us a more desirable result, but credit to George Fox, they pressed us on defense and made the plays when they needed to down the stretch."
The loss drops the Lady Reds to 4-6 on the season, while George Fox, the third ranked team by D3hoops.com and second ranked team in the USA Today DIII Coaches Poll, remains undefeated at 10-0.
Morgan Harris led Carthage with a game-highs in points and rebounds with 26 points and 17 rebounds, for her fourth 20-plus point performance of the season fourth double-double of the season. Bailey Gilbert was the only other Lady Red to join Harris in double figures with 11 points.
"Morgan's activity was great today. She played with a lot of confidence and did a great job getting us the extra possessions by earning rebounds the way she did," noted Bernero on the play of Harris.
The Lady Reds struggled in the opening quarter, shooting just 3-of-21 for 14.3 percent from the field and falling behind 7-0 just over a minute into the game. The Lady Reds settled-in defensively the rest of the way in the first, holding the Bruins to 2-of-12 on field goals over the final eight minutes of the opening 10 minutes. Monica Masini led the Carthage as they attempted to fight back from the early deficit with five points in the quarter, including 3-of-4 from the free throw stripe.
Leading 18-11 after the first, George Fox continued to press and use its tall interior to push the lead to as many as 13 in the second. However, a three-point field goal by Bailey Gilbert with seven seconds left in the quarter capped an 8-2 run for Carthage to close the half and cut George Fox lead to 32-26 heading into the break.
The Lady Reds continued the comeback as the third quarter opened as Morgan Harris went on a 5-0 run by herself to bring Carthage back to within one at 32-31. Following two minutes of scoreless basketball, Carthage eventually drew even for the first time since the beginning of the game on a Masini free throw. Tied again at 37-37, Carthage and George Fox would trade runs the remainder of the quarter, as GFU went on a 7-0, followed by a 5-0 run by Carthage, and ending on an 8-2 run to give George Fox a 52-44 lead after 30 minutes.
Carthage fought back to within one at 54-53 just over four minutes into the fourth quarter, however it was the closest that the Lady Reds would pull within, as turnovers forced by the number-three team in the country were too much for the Lady Reds, eventually dooming Carthage to defeat.
The Lady Reds will wrap-up the D3hoops.com Classic and 2015 on Tuesday, as Carthage faces St. Vincent College at 12:00 p.m. PST from the arena at the South Point Casino in Las Vegas.
Looking ahead to tomorrow Bernero stated, "Playing in a tournament like this is cool because there is a short turnaround from today's game to tomorrow's. We hope playing a game already, after being off a while is to our benefit and we can use it to our advantage against St. Vincent who has been off for an extended period of time. We did a lot of good things today; so to show that we are growing as a team we need to show it again tomorrow."