Box Score Archived Game Video

In front of record-breaking women's basketball crowd of 1,075, the Carthage College women's basketball team (23-4, 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, won the title game of the CCIW Women's Basketball Tournament on Saturday night, Feb. 23, 61-52, over No. 43 Wheaton College (Ill., 22-5) at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis. 

With the win, the Lady Reds earned the league's automatic qualifier to the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship.  Carthage won its tournament-semifinal game, 91-81, over North Central College (13-13) on Friday, Feb. 22, with Wheaton (Ill.) edging Illinois Wesleyan University (18-8), 62-59, in the other semifinal contest.  The NCAA will announce the field and game locations for the 64-team championship, via NCAA.com, on Monday Feb. 25 at 1:30 p.m., CST.
 
Carthage led for most of the first half, which had five lead changes and three ties.  The Lady Reds led by as much as seven points, 25-18, at 5:28, but the Thunder pulled to within two at halftime, 27-25.  Wheaton opened the second period with a 9-4 run to take a three-point lead, 34-31, at 15:52.  After four ties and four lead changes, Carthage took the lead, for good, 42-41, at 8:17 on a pair of free throws by Kristi Schmidt.  From there, the Lady Reds used a 17-8 run to take their largest lead of the game at 10 points, 59-49, at with 51 seconds remaining.  Carthage went on to win by nine, 61-52.
 
Carthage shot 35 percent (16-46), including five-of-13 three-pointers, while Wheaton shot 32 percent (20-63), including just three-of-20 from three-point range.  The Lady Reds got to the free-throw line 27 times and converted 24 of those, while the Thunder connected on just nine-of-20 free throws.  Carthage out-rebounded Wheaton by a 45-39 margin. Three Carthage players scored in double figures.  Haley Stercic (Jr., Chicago, Ill./Marist) scored a game-high 18 points on four-of-eight field goals, including four-of-seven three-pointers, along with a perfect six-of-six free throws.  Kristi Schmidt (Jr., Bloomington, Ill./Normal-Community) scored 14 points on three-of-five shooting and eight-of-10 free throws, along with nine rebounds, and Cailee Corcoran (Sr., Oak Lawn, Ill./Chicago-Marist) added 11 points and seven boards.  Brooke Olson was the lone Wheaton player in double figures with 10 points, while Maris Hovee had nine points and a game-high 15 rebounds.

“Wheaton is an awfully good team,” said Carthage coach Tim Bernero.  “and they took us out of a lot of our offensive stuff.  It was hard to score.  We made some adjustments at halftime, and I told our kids that we needed to make plays.  We found a way to do it, and Erin Quinn's block of Jenn Lee's three-pointer late in the game was the kind of play we needed.  Haley Stercic also did her job well tonight.  You do what you can.  She threw her body into things and kept things alive, and I'm really happy for her.  Michelle Wenzel, who didn't play so well in the semifinal game, made two huge baskets in transition tonight.  While it never felt like we were in control, we got enough done to get ahead and stay ahead.  I hope Wheaton gets to play another game, because they deserve it.  We're not always pretty, but we're 23-4, and we won the conference and the tournament—that's all that matters.  This team has a quiet kind of toughness.  Now, we don't have to worry about an NCAA bid—we're in.”