Box Score

The Carthage College women's basketball team (24-5), ranked 14th in the March 2 "D3hoops.com" poll, lost to defending-national-champion and No. 5 George Fox University (28-2), 55-48, on Friday, March 12 in an NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship sectional-semifinal game at the Washington University (Mo.) Field House in St. Louis, Mo. No. 6 Washington (Mo., 26-2) upended No. 27 Mount Union College (26-5), 76-57, in the other semifinal game. George Fox (28-2) will take on Washington (Mo., 26-2) in the March 13 sectional-championship game.

The Lady Reds advanced to the “sweet 16” of the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship with a 79-74 win over Wisconsin-Whitewater (21-8) on Saturday, March 6 at Wisconsin-Whitewater's Kachel Gymnasium in Whitewater, Wis. Carthage posted its first-ever victory in the NCAA championship on Friday, March 5 with a 73-60 victory over Northland College (18-9) at Wisconsin-Whitewater's Kachel Gymnasium in Whitewater, Wis. In the other first-round game, No. 33 Wisconsin-Whitewater (21-7) defeated the University of St. Thomas (Minn., 21-8) by a 91-73 margin.

The game was a defensive tussle throughout as each team struggled against the other's defense, Carthage in a tight man-to-man and George Fox in an active 2-3 zone. The first half featured four ties and nine lead changes. Carthage took the first lead on a jumper by Diana Jacklin 14 seconds into the game, but Keisha Gordon answered with a three-pointer for the Bruins. The Bruins later used an 8-0 run to take their largest lead of 13-7 with 12:26 to go in the period on a pair of free throws by Gordon. The two free throws came after Carthage's Diana Jacklin was whistled for her second foul of the game. Carthage coach Tim Bernero only held Jacklin out of the game for a couple of minutes before reinserting her with his team trailing by four points. She made an immediate impact with a lay-up to pull her team within one, and she sank a 12-foot jumper at the 6:55 mark to put the Lady Reds up by one, their first lead since the opening moments of the game.

From that point the teams traded jabs until the closing minutes of the period when George Fox managed to extend its lead to two possessions. Carthage led by one when Keisha Gordon drilled a three to put the Bruins back up by two with just under two minutes in the half and Elise Kuenzi scored a minute later to provide the four-point halftime cushion, 26-22.

With Dorn scoring two baskets and Jacklin three goals plus a free throw, the Lady Reds went on an 11-1 run to take a six-point lead of 33-27 early in the second half. A three by Gordon, a layup by Munger, and two Kuenzi free throws rallied the Bruins to a 38-35 lead with 10:55 left. The Bruins never trailed again, but the Lady Reds tied the game three more times, the last at 46-46 on a jumper by Dorn with 4:38 to play. George Fox ended the game on a 9-2 run over the final 4:38 to clinch its second-straight trip to the NCAA sectional finals. With the score knotted at 46-46, senior Elise Kuenzi sank a pair of free-throws to put George Fox up by two, and the Bruins led by five following a Lindsay Keener three-pointer.

Carthage entered the game as the top field goal shooting team in the country with a .474 percentage, but managed only a .328 mark (21-64) against the Bruins, who are seventh nationally in field goal percentage defense (.322). George Fox did not fare much better from the floor, hitting .354 (17-48), but made up the difference by making 15-22 from the foul line to only 3-4 for the Lady Reds. George Fox committed only nine fouls to 15 for Carthage. Kuenzi had her second double-double of the season with a game-high 18 points and 10 rebounds, while Munger had her 10th of the year with 15 points and a career high-tying 15 boards, along with seven blocked shots. Gordon added 13 points, hitting three three-pointers. Kuenzi passed out five assists, and Gardner picked up three steals. Rosie Dorn (Sr., Chicago, Ill./Wilmette-Regina Dominican) scored 15 points to lead Carthage and Diana Jacklin (So., Berwyn, Ill./Morton West) had a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds.

“We had a couple of very timely threes and made enough free throws to stay ahead,” George Fox head coach Scott Rueck said. “I really applaud Hannah's effort, especially coming into her first sectional as a freshman. I'm extremely happy with her performance. You always hope in tough games like these that you can make it through and tonight, we're really happy we did that”

“We needed to speed it up a bit,” said Carthage coach Tim Bernero, “but their defense dictated the tempo. It was a tough game with high intensity. These kids are impressive. We have wonderful, tough kids who played against a great team and we battled toe to toe with them. It came down to a couple shots, a couple rebounds, a couple plays. Every time it looked like we could stretch it out they got back into it. They hit a big three with 2:22 to stretch it from two to five, and we just couldn't recover. In looking back on this experience, you hope your younger kids were observant of the senior leaders we had in Rosie and Katie. Once you get the feeling of being among the top teams in the country, the competitor in you wants more. For our kids to be this complete on and off the court and battle with this much courage is a special thing. Every team is different, and no season is the same, but the challenge for this group is to take the torch from these great leaders and show next year's team how to play at this level.”