ELMHURST, Ill. – The Elmhurst women's basketball team battled with Carthage down to the wire, but the Bluejays came up short in a 67-59 loss at R.A. Faganel Hall.
 
Elmhurst (8-10, 4-5 CCIW) led Carthage (14-5, 8-2 CCIW) after one quarter before a sluggish third quarter helped the Lady Reds open up a double figure lead. The Bluejays made it close down the stretch, pulling to within four points with two minutes remaining before Carthage held on for the victory.
 
Elmhurst rode a hot-shooting first quarter to a quick 21-15 lead. The Bluejays connected on four three-pointers in the game's first 10 minutes, including three triples from Lisa Logan. Carthage answered back in the second, using an 8-0 run to move in front 25-23 midway through the quarter. Elmhurst reclaimed the lead at 27-25 on buckets from Julia Madrid and Marissa Urso, but back-to-back three-pointers from Autumn Kalis and Sammie Woodward put the Lady Reds in front 31-27 with a minute remaining. Logan's fourth three of the half brought Elmhurst to within one with 30 seconds left, but Kalis drilled her fourth three of the half with eight seconds remaining to put the Lady Reds up 34-30 at the half.
 
Leading by three early in the third quarter, Carthage ripped of a 14-2 run over a three-minute span to open up a 51-36 lead with just five minutes left in the quarter. Elmhurst trailed by 12 (53-41) after 30 minutes. The Bluejays slowly chipped away at the Carthage lead in the fourth. Trailing by 11 with 6:40 remaining, Elmhurst rattled off a 9-2 run to close to within four points at 61-47 with 2:30 left to play. Carthage scored the next four points to double its lead before coming away with the eight-point win.
 
Elmhurst finished the contest shooting 30.8 percent (20-of-65) from the floor, including 36.8 percent (7-of-19) from downtown. Logan came off the bench to lead Elmhurst in the loss. Logan finished one rebound shy of a double-double, totaling a game-high 25 points and a team-best nine rebounds. She shot 8-of-13 from the floor, including 5-of-5 from downtown. Urso finished with 12 points and four steals for the Bluejays while Kellee Clay scored six for Elmhurst.
 
Carthage hit 36.4 percent (24-of-66) of its shots from the floor, including 35.7 percent (10-of-28) from beyond the arc. Kalis led the Lady Reds with a game-high 22 points, connecting on 6-of-10 from three-point distance. Madie Kaelber added 11 points and Sammie Woodward scored nine for Carthage.
 
Elmhurst hosts Millikin University on Saturday, January 26.