WHEATON, Ill. – The Carthage College women's basketball team managed to cut a 20-point third quarter deficit in half with three minutes remaining in regulation, but Wheaton College wouldn't let the Lady Reds any closer, as the Thunder held on for a 70-56 lead.
 
While the shooting statistics were similar for the game, Wheaton (13-4, 5-2) took advantage of Carthage (7-11, 3-4) with a 24-12 advantage in the paint and 12-2 victory in transition points. 
 
Morgan Harris finished with a team-high 22 points on 5-of-12 shooting, which included 9-of-10 from the free throw line.  Erin Thomas, who led the Lady Reds with four assists on the night, added 12 points to join Harris as the only other Carthage player in double figures. 
 
 A free throw at the 8:11 mark of the first quarter by Harris gave the Lady Reds their only lead of the evening at 1-0 before the Thunder grabbed quick control of the game.  After falling behind, the Thunder used a 20-3 run to take a 16-point lead with 2:51 remaining in the first.  Carthage would fight back over the final few minutes and cut the lead to ten after the opening ten minutes at 26-16.
 
"We talked about it in the locker room.  We didn't execute the game plan to start the game defensively and that is where they killed us," said head coach Tim Bernero following the defeat.  "The people for Wheaton which we didn't want to get started got started as far as some of them hitting threes and spotting them an early 17-2 lead.  It is an awfully hard way to play on the road against a pretty good team… It was fresutrating not to get off to a good start.  We needed to be a little more attentive to their personnel and the scouting report, which we kind of lost track of to start the game."
 
A low scoring second quarter by both teams saw Carthage cut the lead to seven after a Harris three to open the quarter.  However, the Lady Reds would only score five more points in the quarter and find themselves down 16 at the break, 37-24.
 
Wheaton continued to push the pace of play in the third quarter, extending the lead to as many as 20-points late in the third.
 
The Lady Reds would begin a ferocious comeback, eventually cutting the deficit in half with three minutes left in the game at 66-56.  But Carthage, who committed 17 turnovers in the game, would turn the ball over on three straight possessions letting a cold shooting Wheaton team off the hook and allowing the Thunder to get to the line to seal the victory down the stretch.
 
"The turnovers just came at bad times today," said Bernero.  "A little bit of fatigue maybe from trying to climb back in the game and a little bit of Wheaton being good defensively.  I think with the pace of the game we have to understand that when putting the ball on the floor and attack you need to be strong, and if the defense stops you, you need to be strong and get the ball to the next person.  And it got a little sloppy in the fourth quarter but it is stuff that we can correct and can handle going forward."
 
Wheaton's starting trio of Katie McDaniels, Kelly Lawson and Chantal Meacham, as well as Mel Bremhorst, all scored in double digits for the Thunder with McDaniels leading the way with a game-high 24 points.
 
Carthage returns to campus Wednesday, January 27th, when the Lady Reds take on North Park University at Tarble Arena at 7:00 p.m.
 
 Looking ahead to the second time around in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, Bernero said "Hopefully the girls have some payback on their mind with North Park and Illinois Wesleyan coming to our place this week!  We are trying to get even with the teams that beat us the first time around and the teams that we beat are going to come at us a little harder.  The league is still open and the CCIW tournament spots are still up for grabs so we need to defend our home court this week to force our way back in there.  If we win Wednesday we are right there in third.  So we will look at what they did to us last time and hope to adjust."