The Carthage women's basketball team (13-9, 6-5 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin) defeated CCIW-opponent Augustana College (Ill., 7-15, 1-10 CCIW), 53-42, on Saturday, Feb. 7 at the Roy J. Carver Center in Rock Island, Ill.
 
With both teams shooting in the 20 percent range for most of the first half, Carthage edged out to an eight-point lead, 13-5, at 11:01.  The Vikings cut the lead to two points on three occasions, but the Lady Reds led by five points at halftime, 23-18.  Carthage pushed the lead to 10 points, 34-24, at 11:10 second half.  A 13-2 Augustana run followed, giving the Vikings their first lead of the game, 37-36, at 6:43 on a three-pointer by Valerie VanRoeyen.  With the game tied, 40-40, Alexis Hahn scored on a layup at 3:44 and the second-of-two free throws at 3:18.  Erin Quinn connected on a layup at 1:46, and Carthage led by five, 45-40.  Another Quinn layup at 1:08 made it a seven-point game, 47-40, and the Lady Reds went on to win by 11 points, 52-42.  Carthage closed out the game on a 13-2 run.
 
With the win, the Lady Reds pulled back into a third-place tie with Elmhurst College (13-9, 6-5).  The Bluejays were a 72-60 loser to first-place Wheaton College (Ill., 20-2, 10-1) on Saturday.
 
Carthage shot just 33 percent (16-48), including four-of-13 three-pointers, while Augustana shot just 28 percent (13-46), including four-of-15 from three-point range.  The Lady Reds got to free-throw line 23 times and made 17, while the Vikings connected on 12-of-14.  Augustana won the rebounding battle by a 36-31 margin
 
Alexis Hahn (Jr., Itasca, Ill./Roselle-Lake Park) led the Lady Reds with 17 points on seven-of-18 field goals, along with three-of-four free throws and five rebounds.  Taylor Boardman (Jr., Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln-Way North) had 13 points and a game-high 10 boards, while Kasey Kleiner (Sr., South Milwaukee, Wis./Somers-Shoreland Lutheran) added 12 points and five assists.  Marissa Pezzopane was the lone Augustana player in double figures with 17 points on six-of-16 shooting, along with five-of-six from the free-throw line and eight rebounds.
 
"It wasn't a masterpiece, that's for sure," said Carthage coach Tim Bernero.  "We haven't been guarding anybody very well, but Marissa Pezzopane, with six-of-16 field goals, didn't get anything free tonight.  We got ourselves into foul trouble early in the second half, and Augustana made enough free throws to keep them in the game.  We couldn't get our offense going at an efficient-enough rate to get away from them.  Fortunately, we locked things up in the final few minutes, and kept them from scoring at all.  We're back even with Elmhurst now, but we have two tough games at home this week with North Central and Wheaton."
 
Carthage plays host to conference-opponent North Central College (20-2, 9-2, 2nd CCIW) on Wednesday, Feb. 11 in a 7 p.m. game at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.