The Carthage College men's basketball team (10-4, 2-1 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked 38th in the Jan. 12 “D3hoops.com” poll, defeated CCIW-opponent Elmhurst College (5-9, 0-3 CCIW), 79-52, on Wednesday, Jan. 13 at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.

 

Carthage jumped out to a 10-point lead, 16-6, at 14:27.  The Red Men increased their lead to 17 points, 37-20, at 3:45 and led by 14 points at the break, 39-25.  Raul Guzman  connected on six-of-nine three-pointers in the first period, en route to 20 points, while Steve Djurickovic did not attempt a field goal in the first half. Elmhurst made a game of things early in the second half. Using a 13-4 run, the Bluejays pulled to within four points, 43-39, at 16:21. The Red Men took off on a 25-5 run at that point to put the game away. Over the course of eight minutes, Carthage increased its lead to 24 points, 68-44, at 7:51. The Red Men led by as much as 31 points, 79-48, at 2:38 and went on to win by 27, 79-52.

 

Carthage shot 58 percent (28-48), including 63 percent in the second half (15-24), while Elmhurst shot just 31 percent for the game (21-67). The Bluejays out-rebounded the Red Men, 40-31. Carthage's Raul Guzman (Fr., Lyons, Ill../Berwyn-Morton West) scored a game-high 28 points on 10-of-14 field goals, including eight-of-12 three-pointers, along with a game-high 11 rebounds and four assists. Tyler Pierce (Fr., Westmont, Ill.) had 18 points on six-of-seven shooting and six-of-eight free throws. Mitch Thompson (Fr., Orland Park, Ill./Sandburg) had 10 points and seven blocked shots. Steve Djurickovic (Jr., Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kenosha-Bradford), while limited to eight points, dished out a school-record 13 assists, breaking his own mark of 12 set against North Park University on Jan. 31, 2009. Max Cary  (So., Geneva, Ill.), who entered the game averaging 13.1 points per game, was ill and missed his second-straight game. Carthage travels to Rock Island, Ill., on Saturday, Jan. 16 to take on conference-opponent and No. 30 Augustana College (Ill., 9-5, 2-1 CCIW) in a 7:30 p.m. tilt at the Carver Physical Education Center.

 “Our second-half execution, was very good on both ends of the floor,” said Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic.  “If you like our basketball team, we have a great player and a great freshmen class.  If you don't like our team, we're playing junior varsity guys and Steve Djurickovic.  No offense to our seniors, but our freshmen are getting better and better.  This may have been a breakout game for Raul Guzman.  Tyler Pierce was outstanding, Mitch Thompson is just a delight to watch.  Elmhurst decided that Steve Djurickovic was not going to beat them, and I don't blame them.  Our bench also did a great job.  We're in good shape going to Augustana this weekend and maybe playing a statement-type game there.  If we do that, we'll be in great shape in the conference race.  This is very entertaining basketball team, and this new arena seems to hold enthusiasm better than the old building.”