CHICAGO – The Carthage College Lady Reds fell to 1-1 on the young College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin season Wednesday night, falling at North Park University who moved to 2-0 in conference, 69-52.
 
Bailey Gilbert and Morgan Harris each finished with double-figures in scoring with 13 and 20 respectively.  Harris added 10 rebounds to record her fifth straight double-double and fourth straight 20 point, 10 rebound performance. 
 
Carthage (5-8) was able to limit the damage off turnovers in the game, allowing just 13 points following the 16 Lady Reds turnovers. However, the Vikings (11-2) were able to drive the hoop to win the battle in the paint 36-8. 

"I think North Park executed their game plan better than we did," said head coach Tim Bernero.  "They got to do what they wanted to offensively for most of the game.  We had a couple good runs in the game that we didn't sustain and I thought they were the aggressor and got rewarded for being so."

Strong defense in the opening four minutes by the Lady Reds forced the Vikings into two early shot clock violations. Carthage would not be able to take advantage as North Park took an 11-point edge, 19-8 into the second quarter.  The Vikings made the most of the Lady Reds' early foul trouble and converted on all four free throws in the quarter.
 
The Lady Reds dominated the second quarter on both ends of the court outscoring the Vikings 19-9 in the quarter to draw within one at the half, 28-27.  Bailey Gilbert had a team-high eight points in the quarter on three-of-five shooting and two-of-three from three point range.  Harris, who had half of the Lady Reds points in the opening ten minutes, went five-of-six from the free throw stripe to give her nine at the break.  After taking the first lead of the day for Carthage late in the half, the Vikings took the narrow lead into the break as NPU went coast-to-coast for a layup at the buzzer.

Bernero noted on his freshman guard, "Bailey got us back in the game in the second quarter with her ability to shoot the ball, the way we expect her to.  She continues to get better each time out on the court, which will pay huge dividends in the future." 

In the third, the Vikings opened the lead to as much as 11 with 10-1 run midway through the quarter to assert a nine-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.  Turbulent shooting continued for Carthage as the Lady Reds went just 3-for-11 from the field, while North Park 47.1-percent on 8-of-17 field goal shooting. 
 
After North Park built the lead back to double-digits at 17 with 6:53 remaining in the game Carthage began to mount a comeback.  First, Mandy Hozzian converted on a three-point play followed by a step-back three by Gilbert to cut the deficit back to 11.  After exchanging baskets, Harris would continue to inch the Lady Reds back, hitting her second three of the quarter to cut North Park lead to 60-50.  It would be the closest the Lady Reds could cut into the lead, as Liz Rehberger would push the lead back to 14 with two quick baskets out of a timeout and finally getting the lead back to 17 with a 69-52 final.
 
Rehberger, the reigning CCIW Player of the Week, finished with a game-high 31 points on 12-of-22 shooting for North Park. 
 
The Lady Reds continue their three-game road trip with the second leg Saturday, January 9th when the Lady Reds join the Red Men in Bloomington, Illinois for a doubleheader with Illinois Wesleyan University.  The Lady Reds will play in the evenings first game at 5:00 p.m. followed by the men scheduled at 7:00 p.m.

"Saturday's game at Illinois Wesleyan will be a little more of an open court game, which hopefully will jumpstart our offense a little bit."