The Carthage College women's basketball team (22-3, 12-2, 2nd place College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked 10th in the Feb. 16 “D3hoops.com” poll, 12th in the Feb. 16 Women's Basketball Coaches Association/USA Today/ESPN NCAA Division III poll and second in the Feb. 17 NCAA Division III Central Regional poll, closed out its regular-season schedule on Saturday, Feb. 20 with a 67-58 win over CCIW-opponent Millikin University (15-10, 9-5 CCIW) at the Griswold Center in Decatur, Ill.   The win was Carthage's 11th in a row and broke a school-record 10-game winning streak set in the 2007-08 season.

 

The game settled the seeding for CCIW Women's Basketball Tournament. Second-seeded Carthage will play third-seeded Elmhurst College in a 5 p.m. semifinal contest on Friday, Feb. 26 at the Illinois Wesleyan University Shirk Center in Bloomington, Ill. The top-seeded Titans will take on fourth-seeded Millikin in the other semifinal contest at 7:30 p.m. The tournament-championship game gets underway on Saturday, Feb. 27 at 2 p.m., with the winner receiving the league's automatic qualifier to the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship. This will be Carthage's seventh tournament appearance since the event began in 2003.

 

Carthage took the lead at 16:04 first half. The game stayed close, with the Lady Reds leading by no more than six points until Katie Klemke's three-pointer at 5:19 gave Carthage a 28-20 lead. The Lady Reds opened up a 13-point lead, 33-20 at 3:20. The Big Blue closed out the first half on a 9-0 run to close the gap to four points, 33-29, at halftime. Millikin took a 42-41 lead at 13:51 second half, capping a 21-8 run that started after falling behind by 13 points. The Lady Reds went back up to stay, 48-47, at 11:08. Carthage had an eight-point lead, 60-52, at 3:02, and the Lady Reds went on to win by nine, 67-58.

 

Carthage shot 41 percent (25-61), while Millikin shot just 35 percent (20-57).  The Lady Reds had a narrow edge in rebounding, 40-38.  Four Carthage starters scored in double figures.  Rosie Dorn (Sr., Chicago, Ill./Wilmette-Regina Dominican) led the way with 17 points on seven-of-eight field goals, including two-of-three three-pointers, along with one-of-one free throws, six rebounds and four assists.  Heather Gilmore (Sr., Des Moines, Iowa/Pleasant Hill-Southeast Polk) scored 14 points with seven rebounds.  Katie Klemke (Sr., Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook South) had 12 points on four-of-nine from three-point range, and Diana Jacklin (So., Berwyn, Ill./Morton West) added 11 points with a game-high 11 boards. The Big Blue, who only used six players, were led by Elise Wildman with a game-high 18 points and seven rebounds. Crystal Zeigler had 14 points and eight rebounds, Cecily Aldridge 12 points and six boards, and Beth Wellbaum totaled eight points, five rebounds and 11 assists.

“Millikin has a tough offensive attack,” said Carthage coach Tim Bernero. “They have so many capable three-point shooters, and you have to guard all of them. They also have a very good inside game. We got some stops when we need them, and we had just enough offense to win the game. When you're having a season as good as we are, you figure out ways to win games like this one. We weren't as crisp as we have been, but we played well enough to win when we needed to make plays. Millikin won the style game. We got so involved in guarding them, we didn't push the ball upcourt as well as we can. We didn't have our usual energy, but that's the advantage of being the home team in a long trip like this one. I expected this to be a tough game. We should be in good shape as far as getting into the NCAA tournament—our resume looks good. Ideally, we can win the CCIW tournament first, get the automatic berth and improve our seeding in the NCAAs."

"Because of NCAA policy," Bernero said, "it's quite possible that the Carthage men's team will get to play at home that first weekend, and we'll be on the road. If it works out that way, we'll deal with it and get ready to play on the road. We have another season to start now with the Elmhurst game on Friday at the CCIW tournament. Both teams will have some adjustments to make. We're going to try and make sure that Lyndsie Long doesn't score 45 points again, and Elmhurst is going to try not to let us make a half-court shot. We've had a great season so far, we've stepped up the program to another level, and we want to go as far as we can this year.”