KENOSHA, Wis. – The Carthage College Lady Reds needed all 40 minutes to finally put away a tough Elmhurst College Bluejays team Wednesday night as Micala Giammarino hit her first field goal of the game, a three-point buzzer beater, to lift the Lady Reds to a 78-75 win at Tarble Arena.
 
The season sweep over Elmhurst keeps Carthage in the hunt for the post season tournament at 8-13 overall and 4-6 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin.  The Bluejays fall to 12-9 on the year and 6-4 in conference.
 
Morgan Harris finished with a game-high 27 points on 10-of-21 shooting and added nine rebounds and eight assists.  Rachel Szydlowski and Mandy Hozzian were each also in double-figures with 19 and 14 respectively.
 
The Lady Reds' 48.2-percent from the field for the game was comparitave to Elmhurst's 42.4-percent, but the Lady Reds took advantage of the Bluejays 17 turnovers, scoring 17 points off of them.
 
Despite being out-rebounded 12-7 in the first quarter, the Lady Reds found themselves ahead 15-14 courtesy of six Bluejay turnovers, which Carthage converted for seven points in the quarter.
 
With Morgan Vukovich and Monica Masini battling early foul trouble in the half, Rachel Szydlowski stepped up and played a huge role in the Carthage offense.  Szydlowski dominated the paint going five-of-six from the field and three-of-four from the free throw line in the first half to turn in a game-high 13 points at the break and give the Lady Reds a 35-33 lead after the first 20 mintues.
 
"It was an interesting game coming out of the half," said head coach Tim Bernero.  "We came out thinking we were going to need a stop only up two at halftime.  But Morgan [Harris] jumps the inbounds pass to open the third and the Elmhurst girl elbows her in the head and all of a sudden we are up four and with the ball and a second hasn't clicked off the clock in the half.  We did a good job attacking the rim today.  We made 11 threes at their place and we knew they weren't going to let us just sit outside and let it happen again.  So we talked to our post players and told them they were going to need to attack since they were going to get singled-up down low.  But Monica Masini and Morgan Vukovich were in foul trouble so Rachel did a great job carrying us down there."
 
A flagrant foul against Elmhurst for an elbow to Morgan Harris' head gave the Lady Reds a four-point lead before a second had ticked off the clock following Harris' two free throws.  Harris would then take over for the rest of the quarter, scoring 19 of Carthage's 25 points in the quarter on six-of-eight shooting and five-of-six from the free throw line.  Additionally, Harris outscored the entire Elmhurst team for the quarter, as the Bluejays finished the third with 14 points.
 
"It seemed like Morgan scored every basket in the third and into the fourth," noted Bernero on Harris' second half.  "We had hoped that if we had shooters out on the floor that it would spread them out and we would be able to let Morgan put it on the floor and that is what happened!  She started going to the basket and I think it is underrated how strong she is.  She was taking some good hits out there and she was still taking the ball to the rim and able to finish."
 
However, even with the Lady Reds leading by 15 early in the fourth, Elmhurst would not go away.  The Bluejays went 8-for-15 from the field and got to the line ten times to erase the Lady Reds lead in the final minute.  With four seconds left in the fourth, Mikaela Eppard's layup tied the game at 75-75.  After Carthage advanced the ball on their called timeout, Bernero drew-up a play to get the ball into Harris' hands but a good defense by Elmhurst trapped Harris along the baseline with two second left.  Harris reacted and maneuvered to get the ball to Giammarino, who launched a three with two-tenths of a second left for the win.
 
"I thought it was cool how the rule changes helped both teams down the stretch," said Bernero.  "They gathered a rebound and got to advance it after a timeout to tie the game.  Then we got to advance it after they tied the game.  So I don't know if we would have gotten that good of a look had we not been allowed to advance it.  We were trying to go to Morgan and she would be able fake a handoff to Mandy and go to the basket but Elmhurst defended it well and trapped Harris on the baseline.  But Morgan improvised and found Micala, who knew the situation perfectly.  She didn't take a dribble or hesitate.  She just collected the ball and put it up.  She is a good shooter.  Not a great shooter.  But she was ready for that shot!"
 
The Lady Reds hit the road next, heading to Augustana College for a 5:00 game on Saturday, February 6th at the Roy J. Carver Center.