LAS VEGAS, NEV.—The back-end of the 2018 D3Hoops.com Classic gave the Carthage College women's basketball team their third ranked opponent of the 2018-19 season in #18 Gettysburg College at the South Point Casino Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday. Carthage escaped Vegas with a 68-62 victory over the Bullets, which marked their first win over a ranked opponent since November 19, 2016 when they defeated #12 UW-River Falls 74-60 at the Wisconsin Lutheran Classic. The Bullets were #18 on the most recent D3Hoops.com Top 25 Poll (December 18).
"A wise man once told me it's very difficult to win a college basketball game," said Lady Reds head basketball coach
Tim Bernero. "Gettysburg is a good basketball team, they have a lot of weapons and we got ourselves to a pretty good start, then got into some trouble before picking ourselves up again. We made it hard for their people to score, and that's the objective all the time, which gave us a good win."
A pair of Lady Reds collected a double-double in a game for the first time since January 27, 2018 when they defeated Augustana 80-74. Carthage was led by a post player for the second-straight game as
Rachel Szydlowski tallied a game-high 18 points and 11 rebounds.
Bailey Gilbert pulled down her first career double-double with 15 points and 12 boards while
Madie Kaelber came back with a 16-point effort on 7-of-14 shooting for the Lady Reds.
Carthage wraps up their 2018-19 non-conference schedule with a 7-5, 1-2 CCIW mark while Gettysburg drops to 8-2, 5-0 Centennial Conference.
Lady Reds 68, Gettysburg 62
Six of the game's 11 lead changes occurred within the opening 10:00. The Lady Reds' latest lead occurred with 1:33 remaining in the first frame when Szydlowski converted a pair of free throws before Seanna McNamara's three-pointer for the Bullets with 0:45 left gave them a 20-18 edge heading into the second quarter. It was a lead they didn't surrender throughout the second frame as they maintained a 31-27 advantage at halftime.
Back-to-back three pointers from
Bailey Gilbert and
Sammie Woodward gave Carthage a brief 33-31 lead with 9:09 left in the third quarter. Gettysburg responded with a 17-7 run that gave them their largest advantage of the contest at 48-40 heading into the fourth frame. The Lady Reds' 21-6 run to open the fourth quarter was enough cushion in a 68-62 victory.
Carthage will continue CCIW play at Tarble Arena on Wednesday, January 2 against North Park University at 7:00 p.m.
"We want this to be the springboard," said Bernero. "I put them in a tough spot from the standpoint that I schedule a lot of good teams. We didn't have a lot of easy ones, but I feel we kicked the door in with this victory."
