Contact: Ashleigh Jones, Sports Information Graduate Assistant
Jan. 27, 2018- After three road games the North Central College women's basketball team returned home to Gregory Arena, falling to Elmhurst College Bluejays 41-61.

After losing the opening the tip-off and having to recover quickly defensively the Cardinals retained possession and earned the first basket of the game scored by Lyndsay Brennan. Unfortunately, that 2-0 lead was the only time North Central would lead for the remainder of the game.

For the next three minutes the Cardinals attacked the basket with energy but failed to find the bottom of the net. Finding little success at the field coupled with being out-rebounded and early fouls on Natali Dimitrova North Central found itself down by six early.

Ending their scoring drought with five minutes left in the first half Jessica Dahle took a short jumper in hopes to igniting a run for the Cardinals. Despite their efforts however, Elmhurst answered quickly and kept North Central scoreless for over four minutes.

At 1:55 Whipple scored bringing the Cardinals within 10, yet the burst of energy from North Central only led to one more basket in the quarter closing the first quarter down by 13.

Looking to shake up the second quarter the Cardinals put Reedy back in and Frankie Petit with the remaining starters from the first quarter.

After scoring just a minute into the second half North Central found itself down by just eight with a timely layup by Mayson Whipple.

That sparked aggression on the Cardinal defense and in turn led to a forced turnover by the Blujays and a fast break with Whipple and Michaela Reedy leading to a three pointer by Reedy.

Suddenly the North Central was back and forth with Elmhurst until the five-minute mark where both teams seemed to struggle to hold onto the ball.

By the end of the half the Cardinals remained down by 13, shooting just 32% from the field and holding the Bluejays to 34%.

Despite starting with the ball North Central couldn't find their rhythm in the third quarter.

With Elmhurst senior forward Mikaela Eppard proving to play too big for the Cardinals to stop the third quarter passed with only nine points scored by the Cardinals.

Looking for redemption North Central started the fourth quarter with the same aggression they had in the first quarter.

Within the first thirty seconds of the quarter Whipple worked on the Bluejays' freshman guard Kelly Weyhrich and drained a three bringing the score to 30-50.

By the seventh minute of the fourth quarter the Cardinals were slowly ticking away at their deficit thanks to some quick baskets by Siarra O'Neil, while stifling the Bluejays to no points.
 
Though North Central continued to struggle to grab rebounds the energy off the bench kept the Cardinals in play up until the final four minutes of the game.

Regrettably, the hustle at the end was not enough for North Central to make up their overall shooting percentage of 27.6% and being defensively out rebounded throughout the game.

North Central continues College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) play on Wednesday, Jan. 31, back in Gregory Arena with an evening tip-off at 7 p.m.  Links to live in-game coverage are available HERE.