March 28, 2008
Contact: Steve Marovich, Sports Information Director (262) 551-5740
E-Mail: stevich@concentric.net or carthagesid@carthage.edu
Carthage Web Page: www.carthagesports.com
Carthage 24-Hour Sports Hotline (262) 551-5388
Women’s Basketball Falls to Millikin, 49-48, in CCIW Semifinals;
Three Lady Reds Named to the All-CCIW Team
2008 CCIW Tournament: The Carthage College women’s basketball team (18-8, 10-4 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) lost to on Millikin University (20-6, 11-3 CCIW), 49-48, on Friday, Feb. 29 in the semifinals of the CCIW Women’s Basketball Tournament at the Illinois Wesleyan University Shirk Center in Bloomington, Ill. In Friday’s first semifinal contest, conference-champion, top-seeded and No. 9 Illinois Wesleyan (24-2) defeated fourth-seeded Elmhurst College (12-14), 78-57. The CCIW champion plays host to the conference tournament, which is used to select the league’s automatic qualifier to the NCAA Division III Women’s Basketball Championship. Illinois Wesleyan (25-2) defeated Millikin (20-7), 75-64, for the tournament championship on Saturday, March 1.
Three Lady Reds Named All-CCIW: Three members of the Carthage team were named All-CCIW. Carlie Janowiak (Sr., Aurora, Ill./Waubonsie Valley) was named first-team All-CCIW, Katie Jarger (Jr., Chicago, Ill./River Forest-Trinity) second-team, and Erika Buchholz (Sr., Lisle, Ill.) earned third-team all-conference honors. Janowiak, a third-team all-conference selection last year, was 28th in CCIW scoring (7.5 points per game), first in three-point field-goal percentage (.443), first in assist/turnover ratio (2.22 per game), third in assists (4.63 per game), sixth in blocked shots (0.96 per game), seventh in steals (1.88 per game) and 14th in rebounding (4.8 per game). Jarger, a second-team All-CCIW selection for the second-straight year, was 12th in scoring (10.8 points per game), seventh in field-goal percentage (.495), eighth in blocked shots (0.68 per game) and 10th in rebounding (5.3 per game). Buchholz was 13th in scoring (10.1 points per game), seventh in free-throw percentage (.771), 10th in assists (2.88 per game), 13th in three-point field-goal percentage (.300) and 15th in field-goal percentage (.406).
Best Season Since the 1996 CCIW Co-Championship Team: Carthage’s win over Augustana College (Ill.) on Feb. 19 was Lady Reds’ 18th win of the year , which is their best win-loss record since the 1996 CCIW co-championship team went 18-8.
Final Game at the Carthage PEC: The Feb. 23 Illinois Wesleyan contest was the final women’s basketball game at the Carthage Physical Education Center. The facility will be replaced by the all-new Tarble Arena in January 2009. The first women’s contest at the Carthage PEC was against Trinity Christian College on Feb. 10, 1970.
Carthage at the CCIW Tournament: This was Carthage’s fifth appearance at the CCIW Women’s Basketball Tournament. The Lady Reds have qualified for all but one of the events since the tournament began in 2003. Carthage has never advanced to the tournament-championship game, losing to Wheaton College (Ill.) in the 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007 semifinals and falling to Millikin University in the 2008 semifinals. The Lady Reds did not qualify for the 2005 tournament.
2008 NCAA Championship: Illinois Wesleyan University, the winner of the CCIW Women’s Basketball Tournament, played host to first and second-round games in the NCAA Division III Women’s Basketball Championship on March 7-8 at the Shirk Center in Bloomington, Ill. No. 7 Illinois Wesleyan (26-2) pounded Maryville University (24-4), 111-77, on March 7 in a first-round game, with No. 8 Wisconsin-Whitewater (25-3) defeating Manchester College (24-4), 77-60, in the other first-round contest. Illinois Wesleyan (26-3) lost to Wisconsin-Whitewater, 87-63, on March 8 in a second-round game.
The Record Book: Carthage’s win over Millikin University on Jan. 29 extended its school-record winning streak to 10 games. The previous mark was an eight-game winning streak set by coach Dianne Mizerka’s 1973 team. The streak was snapped with a loss at Illinois Wesleyan University on Feb. 2…with 30 made free throws in the Dec. 8 Clarke game, Carthage broke a game record of 28 free throws set against Elmhurst College on Feb. 8, 2003…with 72 combined free-throw attempts on Jan. 19, Carthage and North Central College broke a Carthage record of 71 attempts set against Augustana College (Ill.) on Jan. 6, 1990 and matched versus Wisconsin Lutheran College on Nov. 23, 2002…the Lady Reds’ Shana Lieberman went 10-for-10 from the charity stripe in the North Central contest to become the third Carthage player with a perfect free-throw mark in 10 or more attempts. Chris Felton went 14-for-14 against North Central on Jan. 5, 1991…Carthage’s win over North Park University on Feb. 5 was the 500th victory for the Lady Reds since the program began in 1901…Illinois Wesleyan University connected on 10-of-25 three pointers against Carthage on Feb. 23 and tied a Carthage game record for opponents with the 10 treys. That record was set by Illinois Wesleyan on Jan. 28, 2006 and matched by the Titans on Jan. 27, 2007. The Titans’ Mallory Heydorn attempted 13 three-pointers in that contest and tied a Carthage game record for opponents set by North Central College’s Tracy Farrell on Jan. 4, 2001.
2007 NCAA Championship: Wheaton College (Ill., 19-7), with the CCIW’s automatic qualifier, and Illinois Wesleyan University (22-5), the league’s runner-up and the second-place team in the CCIW Women’s Basketball Tournament, both received berths in the NCAA Division III Women’s Basketball Championship. Wheaton (Ill.) traveled to Menomonie, Wis., where Wisconsin-Stout played host to a four-team first and second-round event at the Johnson Fieldhouse No. 23 Wheaton (Ill., 20-7) outlasted No. 38 the College of St. Benedict (22-6), 79-75 in double-overtime, on Friday, March 2, with Simpson College (22-6) upsetting No. 15 Wisconsin-Stout (23-6), 91-86. Illinois Wesleyan traveled to Decorah, Iowa, where Luther College played host to a four-team first and second-round event at the Regents Center. The No. 24 Titans (22-6) were upset by No. 41 Carroll College (Wis., 22-4), 86-59. on Friday, March 2, with No. 25 Luther (23-4) defeating No. 38 Concordia University (Wis., 23-4) by a 72-51 margin. In second-round action on Saturday, March 3, Wheaton (Ill., 20-8) lost to Simpson, 81-58. at Wisconsin-Stout, while Luther defeated Carroll (Wis.), 74-50.
Broadcast Information: Selected Carthage women’s basketball games are broadcast on WRJN-AM Radio (1400) and/or available on the Internet at http://www.carthage.edu/athletics/stream/. Veteran Kenosha radio sports announcer John Weiser, “The Voice of the Red Men and the Lady Reds,” handles the women’s basketball play-by-play chores for the fourth-straight year…the Dec. 8 Clarke game will be audio stream only…the Dec. 10 University of Chicago game will be on both WRJN-AM and audio stream…the Jan. 8 Millikin game will be on both WRJN-AM and audio stream, as will the Jan. 15 Elmhurst game…the Jan. 19 North Central game will audio stream only…the Jan. 29 Millikin game will be on both WRJN-AM and audio stream…the Feb. 2 Illinois Wesleyan game will be audio stream only…the Feb. 5 North Park game, the Feb. 12 Elmhurst contest and the Feb. 19 Augustana (Ill.) game will be on both WRJN-AM and audio stream… the Feb. 16 Wheaton (Ill.) game and the Feb. 23 Illinois Wesleyan contest will be audio stream only…Carthage’s games at the Feb. 29-March 1 CCIW Women’s Basketball Tournament will be broadcast live on the audio stream, with live radio on WRJN-AM tentative, pending the results of several Racine-area high school tournament games…“live stats” for all home games are available at http://www.carthage.edu/athleticspages/livestats/xlive.htm. “Live stats” for the Feb. 29-March 1 CCIW Women’s Basketball Tournament will be available on the Illinois Wesleyan web site at http://www.iwu.edu/~iwunews/sports/live/Basketball/xlive.htm
The Coach: Tim Bernero is in his fifth season as head coach in 2008 (71-57, 5 years). The women’s basketball assignment is Bernero’s first head coaching assignment after 13 seasons as an assistant men’s coach, the last seven at Carthage (1997-2003) under head men’s basketball Bosko Djurickovic. Before starting at Carthage in the 1996-97 academic year, Bernero was a men’s basketball assistant at Elmhurst College for two years (1995-96). Prior to that, he served under Djurickovic at North Park University for three years (1992-94) and served four years as an assistant at the University of Chicago (1988-91). Casey Thousand is the assistant coach, with Rachel (Newman) Schlesinger serving as a part-time assistant coach
The Polls: Hope College (27-0, 14 first-place votes) was ranked first in the final, regular-season “D3hoops.com” poll, followed by Howard Payne University (28-0, 10 first-place votes) second, Thomas More College (28-0, 1 first-place vote) third, Messiah College (25-2) fourth, the University of Mary Washington (26-2) fifth, DePauw University (25-3) sixth, CCIW-member Illinois Wesleyan University (25-2) seventh, Wisconsin-Whitewater (24-3) eighth, Simpson College (25-2) ninth, Baldwin-Wallace College (26-2) 10th, Kean University (25-3) 11th, McMurry University (24-4) 12th, Wisconsin-Stevens Point (24-4) 13th, Amherst College (25-2) 14th and Medaille College (25-2) ranked 15th.
The Conference: The CCIW, now in its 62nd season, first sponsored women's basketball as a championship sport in the 1986-87 season. Since then, Millikin University has won or shared a league-leading 11 titles. Wheaton College (Ill.) has won six times, including a shared title in 2005 and outright championships in 2006 and 2007. Augustana College (Ill.) has won five titles, with Carthage College, Illinois Wesleyan University and North Park University winning one championship each. Carthage shared the 1996 title with Millikin. The CCIW coaches, with five first-place votes, picked Illinois Wesleyan to win the 2007-08 title, followed by Millikin second with three first-place votes, Wheaton (Ill.) third, Carthage fourth, North Central College fifth, Elmhurst College sixth, North Park University seventh and Augustana (Ill.) eighth.
CCIW Leaders: Carthage’s Katie Jarger (Jr., Chicago, Ill./River Forest-Trinity) finished the 2008 season ranked 12th among CCIW scoring leaders (10.8 points per game), seventh in field-goal percentage (.495), eighth in blocked shots (0.68 per game) and 10th in rebounding (5.3 per game). Erika Buchholz (Sr., Lisle, Ill.) was 13th in scoring (10.1 points per game), seventh in free-throw percentage (.771), 10th in assists (2.88 per game), 13th in three-point field-goal percentage (.300) and 15th in field-goal percentage (.406). Shana Lieberman (Jr., Arlington Heights, Ill./Hersey) was 18th in scoring (9.1 points per game), tied for sixth in assists (3.19 per game), ranked 11th in three-point field-goal percentage (.310) and 12th in steals (1.73 per game). Carlie Janowiak (Sr., Aurora, Ill./Waubonsie Valley) was 28th in scoring (7.5 points per game), first in three-point field-goal percentage (.443), first in assist/turnover ratio (2.22 per game), third in assists (4.63 per game), sixth in blocked shots (0.96 per game), seventh in steals (1.88 per game) and 14th in rebounding (4.8 per game). Lisa Gartelos (Sr., Lisle, Ill.) was 21st in scoring (8.6 point per game), sixth in field-goal percentage (.497) and 18th in rebounding (4.4 per game). Katherine Burshiem (So., Naperville, Ill/North) was fifth in blocked shots (0.96 per game) and 20th in rebounding (4.3 per game). As a team, Carthage was ranked fourth in scoring offense (66.4 points per game), third in scoring defense (59.6 points per game), third in scoring margin (+6.8 points per game), seventh in free-throw percentage (.654), third in field-goal percentage (.426), fourth in three-point field-goal percentage (.314), fifth in rebounding margin (+1.2 per game) and fourth in home attendance (213 per game).
NCAA Leaders: Carthage’s Carlie Janowiak (Sr., Aurora, Ill./Waubonsie Valley) finished the 2008 season ranked eighth among all of NCAA Division III in assists/turnover ration at 2.22 per game (111 assists and 50 turnovers in 24 games).
Feb. 29 CCIW Tournament Semifinal Notes: Millikin jumped out to an 11-5 lead before Carthage tied the game, 13-13, at 10:31. The Lady Reds took their first lead of the game, 24-21, with 36 seconds remaining in the half on a three-pointer by Rosie Dorn. Carthage led by one point at the break, 24-23. The Big Blue opened the second half with an 11-2 run to take a their largest lead of the game at eight points, 34-26, at 16:39. Millikin made it a nine-point lead, 37-28, at 15:52. Carthage re-gained the lead, 42-41, at 6:18, and the Lady Reds went up by four, 45-41, at 5:38. The Big Blue tied the game, 45-45, at 3:01, but Katie Jarger connected on the three-point play at 2:38 to make it 48-45. The Big Blue knotted the game, 48-48, on a long three-pointer by Megan Mateer at 1:31. With the score still tied, Millikin took a timeout with 12.7 seconds remaining. Lindsay Ippel drove to the basketball and was fouled with 4.7 seconds. Ippel missed the first free throw by made the second for 49-48 lead. Carthage’s Shana Lieberman had an open three-pointer at the buzzer but missed what would have been the game-winning basket. Millikin shot 34 percent (17-50), while Carthage shot 35 percent (17-48). Lindsay Ippel scored a game-high 17 points with six rebounds, while Kelley Steers had 11 points. Katie Jarger, Erika Buchholz and Heather Gilmore each had nine points for the Lady Reds.
Quoting Coach Tim Bernero on the Feb. 29 CCIW Tournament Loss: “I can’t complain about how the game was played. Our kids played their hearts out, but Millikin just made one or two more plays than we did. We had chances, we had the lead in the second half, and we had a couple of possessions late in the game with good shots. The last possession goes to the All-American, Lindsay Ippel, and she gets it done. We got ourselves into a hole, but we dug ourselves out. We had every right to win the game but didn’t. We got the four-point lead, but the game kind of stagnated from that point. I probably should have called a timeout to set up the last shot, but Shana’s three-pointer almost went in. I was concerned, going in, about our ability to score enough points to win. This team accomplished a lot, and 18-8 is a big accomplishment. We could have done better, but we had a great season. We’ll miss seniors Erika Buchholz and Forrest Smith. Erika was a hard-nosed player who gave us a great effort over four years. We have a nucleus of 10 players coming back who are all pretty good, and its’ my job to find the rest of pieces to make them better. I don’t see why next year’s team shouldn’t be right in this mix again. Hopefully, next year’s team can kick the door in at this tournament.”
Looking Forward to Next Year: Carthage coach Tim Bernero is expected to welcome back two fifth-year seniors in 2008-09. First-team All-CCIW player Carlie Janowiak (Sr., Aurora, Ill./Waubonsie Valley) has a fourth year of eligibility remaining after not playing basketball at the University of Delaware her freshman year. Lisa Gartelos (Sr., Lisle, Ill.) has also has a fourth year of eligibility after sitting out most of the 2006 season with a knee injury.