Box Score
The Carthage College men's basketball team (2-1, 0-0 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked fifth in the pre-season “D3hoops.com” poll, lost to No. 18 John Carroll University (3-0), 70-69, on Saturday, Nov. 20 in the championship game of the Carthage Classic at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.
Bethany Lutheran College (2-2) defeated Indiana University-Northwest (0-9), 107-91, in Saturday's consolation game. Carthage opened tournament play on Friday, Nov. 19 with a 108-92 win over Bethany Lutheran College (1-2), with John Carroll (2-0) upending Indiana-Northwest (0-8) by a 117-80 margin. John Carroll tied a tournament record with the 117 points, matching a Carthage effort in a 117-40 win over Taylor University-Fort Wayne in the 1999 event.
In Carthage's loss to John Carroll, the Red Men enjoyed a 13-point lead at halftime, 43-30, after leading by as much as 15 points, 43-28. Carthage still led by 11 points, 52-41, at 13:06 second half when the wheels began to fall off. A 15-4 run by the Blue Streaks tied the contest, 56-56, at 8:05. John Carroll's Maurice Haynes scored on four layups in that run. The Red Men's last lead was 59-58 at 6:53, although the game was tied twice, once at 67-67 with 1:07 remaining.
Conor Tilow scored on a layup with 49 seconds to go to put the Blue Streaks up by two, 69-67.
Pace Bennett and
Max Cary missed layups with under 30 seconds left that would have tied the game. Haynes was fouled with 21 seconds on the clock and made the front end of two-shot free throw to make it a three-point game, 70-67.
Steve Djurickovic connected on two free throws with 8.4 seconds to go to cut the lead to 70-69, but the senior guard missed what would have been a game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer.
John Carroll shot 54 percent (30-56), including 59 percent (17-29) in the second half, while Carthage shot 43 percent for the game (26-61) and just 27 percent in the second period (8-of-30). Maurice Haynes led the Blue Streak with a game-high 23 points on 11-of-16 shooting, along with a game-high 10 rebounds. Conor Tilow had 14 points, and Corey Shontz chipped in 10 points. Three Red Men scored in double figures.
Max Cary (Jr., Geneva, Ill.) led the way with 19 points on six-of-10 field goals and six-of-seven free throws.
Steve Djurickovic (Sr., Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kenosha-Bradford) had 16 points on six-of-15 shooting and four-of-four free throws, along with five assists, and
Malcom Kelly (So., Kenosha, Wis./Reuther) added 14 points. John Carroll's Maurice Haynes and Corey Shontz were named to the all-tournament team, along with
Steve Djurickovic, Bethany Lutheran's Alex Weldon and Carl Hampton Jr. from Indiana-Northwest.
“We didn't do a good enough job in the second half,” said coach
Bosko Djurickovic. “We made poor decisions after poor decisions handling the basketball. Against a good team, you're going to pay the price for that. It felt like we had 25 turnovers, even though it was only 12. John Carroll took us out of our rhythm, and we just didn't make enough baskets. While we might have played the better 40 minutes, we didn't play well at the right times. There were just too many times that we threw the ball away instead of getting a good look. We have things to work on—we're far from a finished product. I enjoyed playing this team, if not the result. John Carroll is a very good team.”
Carthage travels to Hawaii next week for the California Lutheran University “Surf's Up Invitational: in Honolulu. On Wednesday, Nov. 24, Carthage plays No. 16 Whitworth University (2-0) at Punahou School, beginning at 8 p.m., HST, before taking on Pacific University (0-2) on Friday, Nov. 26 at Kalani High School, beginning at 3 p.m., HST.
