Box Score

The Carthage College men's basketball team (4-1, 0-0 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked 17th in the Dec. 1 “D3hoops.com” poll, defeated Wisconsin Lutheran College (0-4), 72-59, on Sunday, Nov. 29 at the Carroll University “Wisconsin Classic” at Van Male Arena in Waukesha, Wis. No. 57 Carroll (Wis., 2-1) takes on Concordia University (Wis., 3-2) in Sunday' se second game at 6 p.m. 

Carthage opened play in the tournament on Saturday, Nov. 28 with an 85-60 win over Concordia (Wis., 3-2). The win was the 1,000th for Carthage since the program began under coach J. Arthur Baird in 1907. No. 57 Carroll (Wis., 2-1) blasted Wisconsin Lutheran (0-3), 100-83, in Saturday's second game. 

Carthage jumped out quickly to a 9-0 lead at 16:16. The Red Men took an 18-7 lead at 12:21 on a steal and a layup by Max Cary. The lead went to 14 points, 23-9, at 9:55. The Warriors got it back to 10 points on several occasions, the last at 32-22 at 1:00. The Red Men led by 14 points at the break, 37-23. The lead went to 18 points, 43-25, at 18:56 second period, before Wisconsin Lutheran shaved the margin to 11, 43-31, at 17:24. Carthage went back up by 18, 61-43, at 7:01 and went on to win by 13 points, 72-59. 

Carthage shot 40 percent (27-67), while Wisconsin Lutheran shot 43 percent (23-53). The Red Men out-rebounded the Warriors, 34-31, while Wisconsin Lutheran turned the ball over 16 times to just seven for Carthage. Steve Djurickovic (Jr., Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kenosha-Bradford) collected Carthage's first-ever “triple-double” with 23 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists. Djurickovic connected on six-of-13 field goals and a perfect 11-of-11 free throws. Max Cary (So., Geneva, Ill.) had 20 points on nine-of-15 from the floor, along with one-of-one from the free-throw line, six rebounds and six steals. Sam Siemers topped Wisconsin Lutheran with 17 points, while Alex Merbach chipped in 11 points. 

“We got done what we wanted to do as far as guarding the perimeter,” said Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic, but I feel like I've been in a boxing ring for 15 rounds. I wasn't happy with our play. Even though we weren't behind, we played like we were for the last 30 minutes. I thought Wisconsin Lutheran played with more energy and more of a purpose than we did for that last 30 minutes. We're a good basketball team with a chance to be better than that, but there are no easy games. You have to play every game with the same passion, and we didn't do that. I don't want to lick a gift horse in the mouth. We did win by 13 points against a respectable team on the road. We are playing the best basketball that we've played in some time. While the world is in a dither about our freshmen, today's win was more about the old guys like Richard Williams, Adam Tolo and Cody Hilton. Those three stabilized the game for us. With Steve Djurickovic, I have walk a tricky line, because he's my star player and my son. In some ways, he's almost under-rated, considering what we ask him to do in the areas of defense, rebounding and passing.”

Carthage travels to Gary, Ind., on Tuesday, Dec. 1 to play Indiana University-Northwest (3-5) in a 7:30 p.m. game at the Savannah Center.