KENOSHA, Wis. – The Elmhurst women's basketball team's season came to a close after the Bluejays dropped an 82-73 nail-biter to 10th-ranked Carthage College in the semifinals of the CCIW Tournament.

Elmhurst (14-12) battled right with Carthage (24-3) for the duration of the contest, but Carthage outscored Elmhurst 11-2 over the final 3:30 of the contest to escape with the victory and advance to the championship game of the CCIW Tournament.

Elmhurst was held to just one field goal for the final 5:50 of the contests and just two points for the final 3:31, as the Bluejays hit just 1-of-11 shots down the stretch while turning the ball over twice.

Trailing by two at the start of the second half, Carthage's Michelle Wenzel proved to be too much for Elmhurst. The Carthage senior scored 11 of her team's first 15 points, putting the Lady Reds up by seven just four minutes into the half. Elmhurst started to fire away from long range as Katie Swanson splashed home a pair of three-pointers and Kalia Summerlin connected on a trey to bring the Bluejays to within a point with 13 minutes to play. Nikky Moan banked home a shot in the lane and hit the ensuing free throw to put the Bluejays back on top by two, but Wenzel sparked a 7-0 Carthage run with five points to give the Lady Reds a 59-54 lead.

A three-point play from Devin Vaughn brought Elmhurst to within two and a driving lay-up from Claire Monroe evened the score with just under 8:30 left. After a pair of Carthage free throws, Monroe buried a triple to give Elmhurst the lead back at 62-61, but Kristi Schmidt scored on a lay-up to put the Lady Reds up 63-62 for the seventh lead change of the contest.

The back-and-forth affair continued as Vaughn sank a pair of free throws to reestablish the Bluejays on top (64-63) with 6:44 left. The lead continued to change hands as the two teams traded buckets for the next two minutes with the score even at 69-all with under four minutes left. Monroe hit a pair of free throws to put Elmhurst up 71-69 lead with 3:41 left, but it would prove to be the Bluejays' final points for the next three minutes. Kasey Kleiner rattled home a three-pointer from the corner with less than three minutes left on the clock to put Carthage back in front 72-71. A minute later, Wenzel hit a pair of free throws to build Carthage's lead back to three with 2:30 remaining. The Lady Reds hit 8-of-10 free throws in the closing minutes to put the game out of reach.

Elmhurst shot 41.7 percent from the floor (25-of-60) and knocked down 8-of-28 shots hoisted from beyond the arc (28.6 percent). Carthage shot 66.7 percent (14-of-21) in the second half to finish the contest shooting 55.3 percent (26-of-47).

Elmhurst controlled the action for the majority of the first half as the Bluejays led for over 17 minutes of and carried a two-point lead into the locker room at halftime. The Bluejays' started strong, opening the contest on a 9-3 run over the first four minutes. Leading by four, the Bluejays used a 7-2 run keyed by four points from Melanie Schwerdtmann and a three-pointer from Karen Senette to build a nine-point cushion eight minutes into the contest.

Carthage answered back using an 11-3 run to pull to within a point with 7:26 left, but a three-point play from Schwerdtmann, the third three-pointer of the half for Senette and a Devin Vaughn lay-up sparked an 8-2 mini-run by the Bluejays to put Elmhurst on top 27-20. Carthage responded with a 10-0 run fueled by eight consecutive points from Michelle Wenzel to give the Lady Reds their first lead of the night with three minutes to play in the half.

Three straight points from Schwerdtmann evened the score at 30-30 and after the two squads traded buckets, Vaughn hit a pair of free throws with 44 ticks left to give the Bluejays a 34-32 lead at the break.

Schwerdtmann finished with 15 points, including 12 in the opening half to help lead the Bluejays in the loss. Vaughn added 15 points, including nine in the second half and totaled three assists, setting a new Elmhurst career assist record in the process with 289. Senette added 11 points for the Bluejays while Monroe came off the bench to score nine.

Wenzel pumped in a career-high 37 points for Carthage, shooting 13-of-17 from the floor and grabbing a game-high 10 rebounds. Schmidt added 18 points while Haley Steric scored nine.