The Carthage College women’s basketball team (18-9, 9-5 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) lost to conference-champion, top-seeded and No. 1 Illinois Wesleyan University (27-0, 14-0 CCIW), 75-55, on Saturday, Feb. 28 in the tournament-championship game of the CCIW Women’s Basketball Tournament at the Illinois Wesleyan Shirk Center in Bloomington, Ill. The Titans have been the nation’s top-ranked team since Jan. 27. In the Friday, Feb. 27 tournament-semifinals, Carthage upended second-seeded Wheaton College (Ill., 16-10, 11-3 CCIW), 65-50, with Illinois Wesleyan defeating fourth-seeded North Central College (12-13, 7-7), 76-68.
The game was tied, 9-9, at 14:02 before Illinois Wesleyan went on a 16-7 run to take a nine-point lead, 25-16, at 5:15. The Titans took a 10-point lead, 35-25, with 15 seconds left and led by that margin at halftime. Illinois Wesleyan went up by 12, 37-25, at 19:15 second half on a layup by Christina Solari. The Lady Reds closed to within eight on two occasions, 37-39 at 18:14 and 39-31 at 16:33, before the Titans went back up by 12, 43-31, at 15:43 on another Solari layup. A layup by Stacey Arlis at 13:22 put IWU up by 17, 50-33. Carthage got no closer than 12 points the rest of the way, 54-42, at 8:22 and 58-46 at 5:59. A three-pointer by Holly Harvey with 19 seconds to play gave Illinois Wesleyan a 20-point lead, 75-55, and closed out the scoring.
Illinois Wesleyan shot 47 percent (27-57), including 52 percent in the second half (14-27), while Carthage shot just 34 percent for the game (21-62). The Lady Reds out-rebounded the Titans, 39-37, but Carthage turned the ball over 14 times to just eight for Illinois Wesleyan. Three Titans scored in double figures. Christina Solari led the way with game highs of 18 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Claire Sheehan had 14 points and seven rebounds, while Stacey Arlis added 13 points. Rosie Dorn came off the Carthage bench to score 17 points on six-of-13 field goals and five-of-six free throws. Lisa Gartelos had 13 points and six rebounds.