Carthage 78, Luther 52
DECORAH, Iowa. - The Carthage women's basketball team traveled to Iowa for a midweek game against the Luther Norse on Tuesday afternoon to close out the 2025 portion of the team's schedule. The Firebirds took a commanding lead early and ran away with a convincing win over the Norse. 



Malia Green got the offense going for the Firebirds with a pair of layups to take an early 4-1 lead. Grace Cord and Whitney Thompson followed up the scoring with each scoring a layup to extend the lead to 8-3 with seven minutes left in the quarter. A pair of threes from Nora Ahram and a pair of baskets from Cord boosted the Firebirds lead to 15 points with four minutes to go. A pair of free throws from Katie Hardke cut the Norse deficit to 13 and ended the Firebirds scoring run. A pair of three point baskets for Jessie Pakaski lifted the Firebirds to a 24-9 lead at the end of the first quarter. Ahram, Cord and Pakaski each finished with a team-high six points in the quarter.

A layup from Cord got the Carthage offense started in the second quarter, before a three from Natalie Beaver cut the Norse deficit to 14 points. The two teams traded baskets through the middle of the quarter before a three from Ahram extended the Firebirds lead to 17 points with the scoreboard reading 34-17 with 3:40 to play in the first half. Threes from Green and Alyssa Orozco would extend the lead further and a last second layup for Orozco would give the Firebirds a 42-21 lead at the half. Green led the Firebirds with eight points in the quarter and 12 points in the first half.

Beaver got the Norse on the board first with a layup to open the third quarter, but Ahram answered back right away with a layup for the Firebirds. Two consecutive scores for Cord extended Carthage's lead to 25 points before a layup for Luther's Abigail Panka ended the 6-0 run for Carthage and kicked off a 6-0 run for the Norse to cut the deficit to 48-29 with 5:19 to play in the period. Carthage responded with another 6-2 run to boost the lead back to 23 points. Threes from Green and Orozco in the final two minutes extended the Firebirds lead to further extend the lead. Carthage led 60-35 at the end of the third quarter with Cord leading the team with six points in the period.

The Firebirds outscored the Norse 18-17 in the fourth quarter with Orozco leading the squad with seven points in the period. The Firebirds walked away with the 78-52 road victory.


 

• Malia Green - 17 points*, 8 rebounds, 3 assists
• Alyssa Orozco - 15 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists
• Grace Cord - 14 points, 12 rebounds*, 7-11 FG*
• Nora Ahram - 11 points, 9 assists*, 3 rebounds, 2 steals

*led team in stat category




"Today was a great team win!" exclaimed Head Coach Megan Jones. "We've been emphasizing playing hard and with urgency for all 40 minutes and we did that today. Malia did a great job defending their point guard which made things difficult for them to get things going on offense. We could shout out a lot of great stats from today, one of the biggest being 21 assists and only 5 turnovers, and all of those great numbers came from playing hard for 40 minutes. Very proud of the team effort today, going 2-0, with a JV win to start the day. Now we will get focused for conference play!"



The Firebirds (6-6, 0-3 CCIW) return to Tarble Arena on Saturday, Jan. 3 as the Firebirds host Elmhurst at 2 p.m. For more information, visit athletics.carthage.edu.