The Carthage College women's basketball team (17-6 overall, 8-4 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked 26th in the Feb. 7 “D3hoops.com” poll and 28th in the Feb. 7 Women's Basketball Coaches Association/USA Today/ESPN NCAA Division III poll, lost to CCIW-opponent Illinois Wesleyan University (18-5, 11-1 CCIW), 57-53, on Saturday, Feb. 11 at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis. 

The defeat dropped Carthage into third place, one game behind Wheaton College (Ill., 16-7, 9-3). Illinois Wesleyan, ranked 23rd by the coaches and 25th by “D3hoops.com”, clinched a share of its fifth-consecutive CCIW title. Illinois Wesleyan has a one-game lead with two to play.

Carthage made seven of its first nine field goal attempts and held a 17-8 lead with 11 minutes, 25 seconds to play in the first half. A three-point basket by Shelby Jackson — her third of the half in three tries — with five seconds to play in the half, gave Illinois Wesleyan a 24-21 lead at the break.

A three-point basket by Stephanie Kuzmanic, who had a collegiate-high 15 points, gave the Lady Reds a 36-31 lead with 11:46 remaining in the game. Wesleyan took the lead for good, 43-42, on a basket by Olivia Lett with 4:49 left. That was the 10th lead change of the game. IWU built a 55-47 advantage with 22 seconds to go.

Diana Jacklin had 15 points and a game-high 13 rebounds, her second straight double-double and third in four games. Jacklin also blocked three shots. Kuzmanic had seven rebounds and two steals.

Carthage made 16-of-39 (41-percent) field goal attempts and was 18-of-29 (62 percent) from the free-throw line. The Lady Reds had 29 turnovers against Wesleyan's full-court pressure defense.

The Lady Reds held Wesleyan to 23-percent shooting (12-for-52), the seventh straight opponent to shoot 35 percent or less. Wesleyan, which had only two baskets during the final 10 minutes, made 18 of 25 free throws during that time. The Titans made 28 of 44 (64 percent) free throws in the game.

Lett, who had three shots blocked by Jacklin and another by Dani Ripkey during the first half, finished with a game-high 25 points.

“They got to the free throw line a bunch, a lot of that we put them in the last couple minutes, but it really hurts” Carthage coach Tim Bernero said. “Same thing the other night; Wheaton, we got them to do what we wanted to. Right now we're just not fluid, offensively. We don't score easily. I was getting frustrated that we were turning down shots. Our shooters have got to shoot the ball, because people have decided they're going to sit in the lane and clog it up. We've got to be ready to shoot the ball and pull them out of that, and we've got to be able to get the ball to people inside when they're available. And right now we're not doing a good job of doing that.”

Carthage is still in good shape to be one of the four schools that qualify for the CCIW tournament, which will be played at the school that wins the regular-season championship.

“They're pretty down right now,” Bernero said, referring to his players. “This week didn't go our way (losses to Wheaton and Wesleyan). What are we going to do about it? Obviously, the results weren't good this week, but there's nothing that tells me we couldn't beat (Wesleyan) if we played them at their place, or beat Wheaton if we played them wherever. We've just got to do what we were doing, then do a little more. We'll keep trying to find a way to get it done.”