Big third quarter pushes Carroll past Vikings

APPLETON, Wis. — The Carroll University women’s basketball team used a big third quarter Wednesday to break open a close game and go on to a 61-41 Midwest Conference win over Lawrence University at Alexander Gymnasium.

The Pioneers led by just five points at the half but outscored the Vikings 20-5 in the third quarter to pull away.

Brittany Wald scored 24 points on 10-of-14 shooting from the floor to lead Carroll (8-14, 7-10 MWC). Wald went 9-for-10 from the floor and scored 20 points in the second half.

Andrea Wilkinson paced Lawrence (0-22, 0-17) with 11 points, and Patsy Kealey and Olivia Hoesley added eight points apiece.

Carroll opened the second half by scoring 10 consecutive points, capped by Wald’s layup, to take a 41-26 lead. Over the same stretch, Lawrence went 0-for-4 from the floor with three turnovers.

Liz Arco’s layup with 6:34 left in the third quarter stopped Carroll’s run, but Lawrence managed just three more points over the rest of the period. The Vikings hit just 2-of-11 shots from the floor and turned the ball over six times in the quarter. Carroll led 51-31 after three quarters.

The Vikings then played Carroll evenly in the fourth quarter but got no closer than 16 points in the final period.

Lawrence jumped out to a 12-5 lead to start the game with Fanita Robins’ layup giving the Vikings an early seven-point lead. The Pioneers then scored the game’s next 10 points to grab a 15-12 lead, but Natalie Kramer’s layup cut the advantage to 15-14 after one quarter.

Carroll stretched the lead to 29-22 with 3:39 left in the second quarter, but the Vikings got layups from Wilkinson and Arco to trim the margin to 29-26 with 57 seconds left. Malory Christenson countered with a layup to give Carroll a 31-26 lead at the half.

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