The Carthage College men's basketball team (6-2, 0-0 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked 17th in the Dec. 1 “D3hoops.com” poll, defeated No. 27 Hope College (4-2), 83-77 in overtime, on Saturday, Dec. 5 on the second day of the sixth annual CCIW/MIAA Classic at Hope's DeVos Field House in Holland, Mich. In Saturday's first game, No. 6 Wheaton College (Ill., 5-1) defeated Calvin College (2-4) by a 74-69 margin. On Friday, Dec. 5, Carthage lost to Calvin, 72-69, in the opening game of the tournament, with Hope upsetting Wheaton (Ill.), 77-52.

 

In the Red Men's win over Hope, neither team led by more than four points in the first half, with Carthage leading by two points at the break, 45-43. Hope took a five-point lead early in the second half, 52-47 at 17:13. The Red Men re-gained the lead, 60-59, at 13:07. Carthage was leading by four points, 71-67, with 25 seconds to play in regulation when Hope's Peter Bunn connected on a three-pointer that cut the lead to 71-70. Bunn fouled Tyler Pierce, but Pierce missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw. The Red Men's Raul Guzman grabbed the offensive rebound and scored on a tip-in to put Carthage up by three, 73-70, with 18 seconds to go. Following a timeout, Bunn missed on a three-point attempt. Teammate Will Bowser rebounded, stepped back behind the three-point line and launched a one-handed attempt that banked home for the game-tying basket, 73-73, at the end of regulation. 

In the overtime period, the Red Men went up to stay, 77-75, at 2:51. A pair of free throws by Steve Djurickovic with seven seconds remaining put Carthage up by five, 82-77. Malcom Kelly hit the back end of a two-shot free throw with one second left for the final, 83-77 margin.

 

Carthage shot 48 percent (20-61), while Hope shot 49 percent (32-66).  The Red Men edged the Flying Dutchmen off the boards, 37-35.  Steve Djurickovic (Jr., Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kenosha-Bradford), with his eighth-straight game of 20 or more points, led Carthage with 23 points on five-of-11 field goals, along with 12-of-14 free throws and six assists.  Tyler Pierce (Fr., Westmont, Ill.) scored a season-high 20 points on eight-of-13 from the floor, along with nine rebounds, and Raul Guzman (Fr., Lyons, Ill./Berwyn-Morton West) added 16 points and eight boards.  Hope's Will Bowser led all scorers with 26 points on 10-of-13 shooting, along with eight rebounds, while Peter Bunn had 15 points and five rebounds. 

“You couldn't ask for a better ball game,” said Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic, “and fortunately, the right team won. It was a just a great college basketball game. The guys on the bench couldn't have been more excited down the stretch. This is a really good group, they play for each other, and that's a really good sign of things to come. If we would have played like this last night, we would have beat Calvin, but our kids are sky high right now. We have to get Tyler Pierce more involved—he is a superb basketball player. He plays smart, and he has very good skills. This was really Raul Guzman's game. He made a couple of three-pointers that were just cold-blooded. He is such a smart player, that he creates opportunities for other players. We're playing well, we're moving forward, and our freshman are getting experience.”

Carthage plays next on Saturday, Dec. 19 when the Red Men travel to Whiting, Ind., to play Calumet College of St. Joseph (6-10) in a 7 p.m. game at the Recreation Athletic Facility.