Box Score

The Carthage College men's basketball team (24-6, 12-2, 1st place College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked 14th in the March 2 “D3hoops.com” poll, was eliminated from the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship on Friday, March 12 by CCIW-opponent Illinois Wesleyan University (23-7), 77-72, in a sectional-semifinal game at Wisconsin-Stevens Point's Quandt Fieldhouse in Stevens Point, Wis. This was the fourth meeting this year between the Red Men and the Titans.

Carthage advanced to the “sweet 16” on Saturday, March 6 with a 76-58 win over No. 24 Anderson University (23-6) at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis. Illinois Wesleyan advanced to the sectional semifinals by knocking off No. 1 and defending-national-champion Washington University (Mo., 24-3), 75-70, on Saturday at the Washington Field House in St. Louis, Mo. No. 5 Wisconsin-Stevens Point (26-4) defeated No. 19 Texas-Dallas (24-6), 74-67, in the other sectional-semifinal game, and the Pointers will take on Illinois Wesleyan in the March 13 sectional-championship game. Carthage won its first-round NCAA game on Friday, March 5 with an 84-70 decision over Aurora University (18-11), with Anderson University (23-5) upsetting No. 6 the University of St. Thomas (23-4), 73-71.

Illinois Wesleyan opened up an early lead at 7-3. Carthage tied the game, 9-9, and took its first lead, 12-9, at 13:58. The Red Men led by six, 20-14, at 11:36. The Titans closed to within one, 20-19, at 8:10, before the Red Men opened up an eight-point lead, 33-25, at 3:17. Carthage led by four points at the break, 36-32. Illinois Wesleyan closed to within two, 38-36, at 18:34 before the Red Men used a 7-0 run to go up by nine, 45-36, at 16:57. The Titans went on a 13-4 run to tie the game, 49-49, at 11:29 and took a one-point lead, 52-51, at 10:26. The game stayed close the rest of the way. Carthage led by four, 63-59, at 4:58 and last led, 63-61, at 4:44. IWU tied the game, 63-63, at 3:58, and the Titans took the lead, for good, 65-63, at 3:13 on a layup by Ryan Connolly. The Red Men got to within two, 67-65, 69-67 and 71-69. Two free throws by the Titans' Matt Schick with 37 seconds to go made it a four-point game, 73-69. Two more free throws by Sean Johnson at the 17-second mark made it 75-69. A three-pointer by Steve Djurickovic at nine seconds cut the margin to three points, 75-72. Two final free throws by Sean Johnson at seven seconds closed out the scoring at 77-72.

Illinois Wesleyan shot 54 percent (28-52), including a blistering 70 percent in the second half (16-23), while Carthage shot 45 percent for the game (26-58). The Titans out-rebounded the Red Men, 31-27. IWU's Doug Sexauer and Sean Johnson led all scorers with 26 points each, and Johnson collected a game-high 12 rebounds. Carthage's Steve Djurickovic (Jr., Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kenosha-Bradford) had 25 points on nine-of-19 field goals, including two-of-seven three-pointers, along with five-of-five free throws, five rebounds and eight assists. Tyler Pierce (Fr., Westmont, Ill.) scored 18 points with seven rebounds, while Max Cary (So., Geneva, Ill.) had 15 points. 

“This one is on me more than anyone else,” said Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic. “We didn't make the adjustments we needed to make in the second half, and they were able to get easier shots. If you look back at our season, there have been very few times when anyone has shot 70 percent against us in the second half. Obviously, my design to stop them wasn't right. If you play somebody four times, there are no secrets. Ron Rose and I both agreed before the game that we'd both rather have played somebody else. Their big people were very effective against us, especially Ryan Connolly. His size inside changed some of our shots, and their inside game was really difficult for us to defend. This was really Doug Sexauer's game tonight. We didn't double on him, and that was my fault When they needed a basket, he got it. I thought we dominated the first half, but we were only up by four points. We had a chance to separate ourselves late in the first half, but we got a little unlucky. There were very few fouls called, and that kind of physical game doesn't really help us, since we're more of a finesse-type team. We played four freshman almost all year, and most people thought we were a year away from this type of competition. When you're nine points ahead in the second half of a “sweet 16” game, you have every right to get greedy. We're going to really good again next year, but the whole CCIW is going to be beyond good next year. Knowing that doesn't make this loss sting any less.”