Six points.

That’s all the separated the women’s basketball team from the second round of the NCAA Division-III Tournament. The Warhawks fell 74-68 to Carthage College Friday to finish the season 22-7.

The ’Hawks came into last Friday’s matchup winning seven of their last eight games. The team’s only loss in February came to UW-Stevens Point in the WIAC Championship game.

The teams went into halftime deadlocked at 34, but the Lady Reds blew past the ’Hawks with an 11-3 run to make it 45-37.

When the ’Hawks fell behind 48-39, they charged back with a 12-0 run to take the lead 51-48 with 10:37 to play.

With just over seven minutes remaining, Carthage pulled ahead 55-52 and kept the lead for the rest of the night.

Near the end of the game, the Lady Reds iced the game with their free throw shooting. A pair of free throws made it 70-65 with 40 seconds left.
Sophomore Mary Merg gave the team a chance with a three-pointer closing the gap to 70-68 with 20 seconds remaining. Merg finished with a team-high 15 points and was 2 of 3 from behind the arc.

It would be the final shot the ’Hawks made this season as the Lady Reds hit four more free throws to close out the game.

Sophomore Kaitlyn Thill, recently named First Team All-WIAC, finished the game with 13 points and five assists. She said the team began the game with less intensity than it wanted to.

“We wanted to throw the first punch, but I think we only threw half a punch,” Thill said. “We knew they had good shooters going in and we just didn’t get  hands in their faces.”

Thill said the ’Hawks gave the ball away too many times, which the Lady Reds turned into points.

“What really killed us was turnovers,” Thill said. “They made us turn the ball over and scored.”

Carthage scored 22 points off of 18 Whitewater turnovers and picked up 10 second chance points as well.