BLOOMINGTON, ILL.—The #3 Carthage College women's basketball team made a return to the CCIW Tournament after a two-season hiatus to take on #2 Wheaton College (Ill.) in a semifinal match at the Shirk Center Arena in Bloomington, Ill. on Friday. The Lady Reds led throughout a majority of the opening 20:00 and entered the final 10:00 tied 49-49, but a 20-5 fourth-quarter run for Wheaton was too much to overcome in a 69-54 loss.
 
Autumn Kalis led all Lady Reds scorers with 12 points on 5-of-11 shooting off the bench. Morgan Harris, who came up just shy of 1,000 career points, rounded out the Lady Reds double-figure scorers with 11. Carthage outshot the Thunder from the three-point line with a .313 (10-32) figure.
 
Three-time CCIW Player of the Week and 2017-18 CCIW Newcomer of the Year Hannah Frazier led all scorers with 24 points and 10 boards for Wheaton. 
 
The Lady Reds conclude their 2017-18 season with a 18-8, 11-5 CCIW record while Wheaton moves on to the CCIW Women's Basketball Tournament Championship Game with a 22-4, 14-2 CCIW mark. Carthage bids farewell to graduating seniors Morgan Harris, Morgan Vukovich and Amber Roberts.
 
"The hard part about all this is seeing all those guys go," said Lady Reds head coach Tim Bernero. "It's tough to let go of them because you had them for four years and having said that as a coach you think about what you can do with the group we have coming back for next year. We are really close, but facts are facts. Double overtime at Chicago, this game here, both games against Illinois Wesleyan, the four-point game against Simpson in Florida. Sometimes you can't see it. It's not how much more weightlifting you do or how much you bench, it's the intangible things you do to make yourself understand the disappointment of not winning a game like this."
 
Wheaton 69, Lady Reds 54
 
Carthage shot .437 (7-of-16) from the field in the opening quarter, led by Madie Kaelber's eight points en route to a 16-15 lead heading into the second frame. Carthage held onto that lead for the better part of the second quarter despite Kaelber not scoring another point in the contest. The Lady Reds surrendered the lead for good when Wheaton closed the second quarter with a 5-0 run to take a 33-28 halftime lead.
 
The Lady Reds and Wheaton battled to a 49-49 score after the third, but Wheaton's 20-5 run to close the game iced them a 69-54 victory.
 
"It's a long season, so it's time to re-energize mentally and physically and go back at it in a couple weeks," said Bernero. "Eighteen wins is really good. A lot of teams didn't achieve 18 wins so it's something to build for."