BLOOMINGTON, ILL.—The Carthage College women's basketball team faced an Illinois Wesleyan University team that sported a four-game win streak against them prior to Saturday. Morgan Harris contributed her third double-double of the season for the Lady Reds with 18 points and 11 boards, but the Titan's 30 made free throws in the contest secured them a 77-68 victory over Carthage.
 
Rachel Szydlowski narrowly missed a double-double with 13 points and nine rebounds while Bailey Gilbert and Sammie Woodward each registered 10 points.
 
Carthage tallied a .403 field goal percentage (27-67) and a .294 (5-17) three-point percentage while Illinois Wesleyan notched a .382 (21-55) figure from the field, and a .227 (5-22) mark from beyond the arch.
 
The Lady Reds fall to 4-2, 0-1 CCIW while Illinois Wesleyan improves to 4-2, 1-0 CCIW.
 
Illinois Wesleyan 77, Lady Reds 68
 
Carthage notched the lead on two occasions throughout the opening quarter. The largest cushion occurred off Harris's first points of the game off a layup with 1:49 left in the frame to make the score 12-8. Sydney Shanks's layup and three-pointer generated a Titans 8-2 run within the final two minutes to give them the lead for good at 16-14 heading into the second quarter.
 
Illinois Wesleyan notched 15 of their 30 free throws in the second quarter, which pushed their margin to 44-28 at halftime.
 
Harris registered five third-quarter rebounds, three of which came on the offensive variety. Her final offensive board of the frame set up her jump shot at the 2:07 mark to narrow Carthage's deficit to 50-39. The Titans responded with an 8-0 run before Harris's three-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer made the score 58-42.
 
The Lady Reds outscored Illinois Wesleyan 26-19 in the fourth quarter. Carthage cut their margin as close as 68-62 off Morgan Vukovich's layup with 3:25 left, but nine Titans free throws down the stretch secured them a 77-68 victory.
 
The Lady Reds will face North Central College (Ill.) in Naperville, Ill. on Wednesday, December 6 at 7:00 p.m.

"One of the tougher places to play for a road game, but now it's out of the way," said Lady Reds head women's basketball coach Tim Bernero. "We've got 15 more to play and we're going to play at North Central on Wednesday and play next Saturday at home. If we win Wednesday and you'd tell me we'd be 5-2 after playing six out of seven on the road, we're in great shape. Now we might be able to get a little role going with a few home games."