The Carthage women's basketball team (2-1, 0-0 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) defeated Wisconsin-La Crosse (3-2) at its home opener, 62-41, on Saturday Nov. 22 at the Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.
 
The Lady Reds started off strong opening with a three-pointer from Kasey Kleiner (Sr., South Milwaukee, Wis./Somers-Shoreland Lutheran) within the first 15 seconds of the game. Carthage maintained a tough defense and got on a run over UW-La Crosse, creating an 11-point lead, 15-4, with a lay-up by Alexis Hahn (Jr., Itasca, Ill./Roselle-Lake Park) at 13:01. The Lady Reds continued to control the pace of the game and capitalized on their lead over the Eagles pulling ahead 25-10. Erin Thomas (Jr., Spring Grove, Ill./Richmond-Burton) hit a three at 10:22, and then broke away to score again at 9:12 to create the 15-point lead over La Crosse. The Eagles pulled within 12-points, 27-15, with a three-pointer by Jenna Anderson at 7:17, but they could not make up the deficit against the Lady Reds. Carthage closed out the first half, 32-18, with a layup by Erin Quinn (Sr., Island Lake, Ill./Mundelein-Carmel Catholic) at the buzzer after a turnover by La Crosse's Gabbi Clary.
 
"I thought we did a pretty good job," said head coach Tim Bernero, "we were aggressive where we needed to be defensively."
 
The Lady Reds opened the second half strong with a lay-up from Hahn at 19:15. Carthage further expanded their lead to 46-19, with another field goal from Hahn at 13:05. Carthage continued to widen the gap against La Crosse as Taylor Boardman (Jr., Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln-Way North) hit a field goal at 9:43, followed by a three-pointer at 9:02, to create a 27-point lead over the Eagles, 53-26. Carthage maintained a strong lead over the La Crosse for the remainder of the half, and closed out the game 62-41.
 
"It's only game three," continued Bernero, "we are still growing a little bit, it's going to get tougher."
 
The Lady Reds shot 39 percent (24-61), including four-of-24 three-pointers, while the Eagles shot 29 percent (13-45) with four-of-15 from the three-point range. Carthage connected 10-of-17 from the free-throw line, while the La Crosse made 11-of-23. The Lady Reds out-rebound the Eagles by a 47-35 margin, and had only 16 turnovers compared to the La Crosse's 22.
 
Three Lady Reds scored in the double-digits; Hahn with a game-high 19 points, Boardman with 12 points, and Thomas with 11 points in the victory over the Eagles. Hahn and Boardman also collected 9 rebounds each, while teammate Allison Riley (Sr., Cudahy, Wis./Cudahy) had 8 rebounds. Lead players for La Crosse were Sam Connolly who had 8 points and 4 rebounds and Maggi Bishop who had 4 points and 6 rebounds.
 
"In the first half we had an understated job by Allison Riley, she had eight rebounds total and four offensive rebounds in the first half. I think she did a great job of getting us alive and giving us more possessions and keeping the ball away from them. That was a big difference," said Bernero.
 
Carthage will travel to Dubuque, Iowa to take on Loras College (2-2) on Tuesday, Nov. 25, at 6 p.m. in the Athletic Wellness Center.