Box Score The Carthage College women's basketball team (21-4, 13-1 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked 26th in the Feb. 19 “D3hoops.com” poll and 30th in the Feb. 19 Women's Basketball Coaches Association/USA Today/ESPN NCAA Division III poll, closed out its regular-season schedule on Tuesday, Feb. 19 with a 69-50 win over CCIW-opponent North Park University (14-11, 5-9 CCIW) at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.
 
Carthage clinched an outright CCIW title on Saturday, Feb. 16 with a 47-44 win over Wheaton College (Ill.) at King Arena in Wheaton, Ill.  The conference championship is the second for Carthage, with the other a co-championship with Millikin University in 1996.  With the win, the Lady Reds will play host to the CCIW Women's Basketball Tournament on Friday-Saturday, Feb. 22-23 at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.  Carthage will play the fourth-seeded North Central College (13-12, 6-8 CCIW) on Friday, Feb. 22 in a 7 p.m. semifinal game with Illinois Wesleyan University (18-7, 11-3) taking on No. 43 Wheaton College (Ill., 21-4, 11--3) in the other semifinal contest at 5 p.m.  The Saturday, Feb. 23 title game gets underway at 7 p.m.
 
In the win over North Park, the Vikings had a 15-14 lead at 12:10 first half.  The Lady Reds took over, for good, 16-15, at 10:53 and led by seven points at halftime, 36-29.  Carthage opened the second half with a 16-7 run that gave the Lady Reds a 16-point lead, 52-36, at 11:19.  The lead grew to as much as 23 points, 67-44, at 2:58, and Carthage cruised to a 19-point victory, 69-50.
 
Carthage shot 54 percent (30-56), including five-of-11 three-pointers, while North Park shot 41 percent (19-46), including two-of-nine from three-point range.  The Lady Reds had a 36-26 rebounding edge.  Three Carthage players scored in double figures.  Cailee Corcoran (Sr., Oak Lawn, Ill./Chicago-Marist) led the way with a game-high 21 points on 10-of-13 field goals, along with eight rebounds.  Stephanie Kuzmanic (Jr., Mount Prospect, Ill./Wheeling) scored 14 points on five-of-11 shooting, along with five rebounds and four assists.  Kristi Schmidt (Jr., Bloomington, Ill./Normal-Community) added 11 points and five boards.  Shaina Yalda and Kamauria Acree had 10 points each for North Park.
 
“It was senior night,” said Carthage coach Tim Bernero.  “so Cailee Corcoran was pretty emotional and maybe a little over-anxious.  It cost her a few minutes of playing time with fouls.  We also got good contributions from Kasey Kleiner and Gabby Chapa  We have weapons, but sometimes the other team tries to dictate what we do.  Sometimes, we have dictate that our better players have to make plays, and tonight, they did.  We tightened up the defense in the second half, and our kids did a good job with that and made it hard for them to score.  The only thing we did poorly was at the free-throw line  It'll be nice to finally play the conference tournament at home.  Hopefully, we'll have a nice crowd.  There are less secrets about each other at this point of the season.  We just have to take care of business on Friday night and get a chance to play for the tournament championship on Saturday.”