KENOSHA, WIS.—The Carthage College women's basketball team was in pursuit of their fourth season-sweep over a CCIW team this season with a Saturday-matinee at Elmhurst College. CCIW leading scorer Mikaela Eppard led all players with 22 points for the Bluejays, but it wasn't enough as the Lady Reds salvaged the season-sweep with a 77-72 victory.
 
Carthage, who didn't tack their first lead of the game until the 9:27 mark of the second quarter, had four players eclipse double figures for the second-consecutive contest. Madie Kaelber paced the Lady Reds in scoring with 21 points, which marked her fourth 20+ point game of the season. Morgan Vukovich matched her performance from last week's 78-60 win over Millikin with another 17-point performance along with seven boards. Morgan Harris tallied her fourth double-digit point performance over the past five games with 12 points and a game-high eight rebounds. Autumn Kalis's 12 points rounded out the Lady Reds in double-figures.
 
"Vukovich has been doing such a great job in practice, and did an awesome job against Millikin the other night," said Lady Reds head coach Tim Bernero. "She has a knack for finding space, and having a nice touch from 15-foot shots. They say the 8-to-10 foot shot is the hardest one to make as you're not at the perimeter, but also not at the rim. She has a knack for making those and I couldn't be more proud of her."
 
The Lady Reds finished the contest with a .500 (27-54) mark from the field, their second-best shooting performance of the season.
 
Carthage, who's won eight of their last nine contests, improves to 15-6, 9-4 CCIW while Elmhurst's third-straight loss gives them a 12-11, 8-6 CCIW mark.
 
Lady Reds 77, Elmhurst 72
 
Carthage couldn't generate an advantage throughout the opening frame as they found themselves in a 24-22 hole. That changed at the 9:27 mark of the second quarter when Madie Kaelber's jumper gave the Lady Reds a 26-24 edge. Carthage proceeded to out-rebound Elmhurst 10-5, and force five turnovers the rest of the second quarter en route to a 46-39 halftime lead.
 
The Lady Reds entered Saturday 13-1 in games they lead at halftime. Carthage didn't disappoint in that category as they surrendered one lead the rest of the game, which occurred at the 5:35 mark of the fourth when Kelly Weyrich's jumper gave Elmhurst a 62-61 lead. Kaelber responded with a three-pointer to give Carthage a 64-62 lead with 5:11 left in the final frame. Elmhurst eventually tied the game 69-69 with 1:42 left, but a pair of clutch jumpers from Vukovich, and four free throws from Harris iced the game and gave Carthage a 77-72 victory.
 
The Lady Reds will return to Tarble Arena for a three-game home stand to close the regular season on Wednesday, February 14 against North Central College (Ill.) at 7:00 p.m.
 
"Looking back to when this schedule was finalized, my first thought was that we need to put ourselves in a good position for these final three home games, and we've done just that," said Bernero.