FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302

Box Score

Nov. 20, 2010 - The North Central College women's basketball team was denied in its bid to capture its sixth Holiday Inn Select Tip-Off Tournament championship on Saturday, as the Cardinals were beaten by the St. Mary's College (Ind.) Belles, 75-56, in the championship game at Gregory Arena.

North Central (1-2) shook off an early double-digit deficit, staging an early-second half rally, before the Belles returned the favor and pulled away.

St. Mary's (3-0) opened the game with a 7-2 surge and led, 17-15, when it put together an 11-0 run to pull ahead by double digits for the first time at 28-15. The Cardinals whittled the deficit down to eight points on a Sophie Newson layup in the final minute of the first half, but the Belles' Maggie Ronan buried a jumper on the next trip down the floor to send the visitors into halftime ahead, 32-22.

Christine Karl opened the second half with a three-pointer and wound up scoring seven points in a 13-4 surge, and knocked down a jumper with 16:54 on the clock that narrowed the gap to 36-35. and forced a St. Mary's timeout. The Belles regrouped and put together another 11-0 surge over the next six minutes, and kept the pressure on in increasing their lead to as many as 26 points down the stretch.

Karl led the Cardinals with 15 points and four steals, while Jackie Errico put up 10 points and eight rebounds. Kelley Murphy led four double-figure scorers for St. Mary's with 17 points.

North Central is off until Nov. 30, when it hosts Robert Morris University-Springfield (Ill.)