Box Score

The Carthage College men's basketball team (11-4, 3-1 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked 38th in the Jan. 12 “D3hoops.com” poll, defeated CCIW-opponent and No. 30 Augustana College (Ill., 9-6, 2-2 CCIW), 69-64, on Saturday, Jan. 16 at the Carver Physical Education Center in Rock Island, Ill.

 

Carthage led from the opening tip. The Red Men jumped out to 7-0 lead in the game's opening minutes. The Vikings closed to within four points, 16-12, at 9:55, before Carthage went up by 10, 28-18, at 4:42. The Red Men led by eight points at the break, 36-28. 

Carthage scored six unanswered points to open the second half, pulling away to a 14-point lead, 42-28, at 16:05. The Red Men led by as much as 15 points on three occasions, 46-31, at 13:38, 51-36 at 11:15 and 56-41 at 8:50. Augustana closed to within seven points, 64-57, on a three-pointer by Matt Pelton at 2:14. After Mitch Thompson hit the front end of two-shot foul at 1:39, the Vikings' Troy Rorer made it a six-point game, 65-59, with a layup at 1:28. The Red Men still led by six, 67-61, before Kyle Nelson scored on a layup at 33 seconds to make it a four-point game, 67-63. Steve Djurickovic drained a pair of free throws with 32 seconds to go to put the Red Men up by six, 69-63. Carthage went on to win by five points, 69-64. 

 

Carthage shot 58 percent (26-45), while Augustana shot 44 percent (26-59).  The Vikings had a narrow, 33-31 rebounding edge over the Red Men.  Carthage's Steve Djurickovic (Jr., Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kenosha-Bradford) scored 23 points on seven-of-12 field goals and eight-of-eight free throws, along with five rebounds and five assists. Tyler Pierce (Fr., Westmont, Ill.) had 16 points on seven-of-10 shooting and five rebounds. Malcom Kelly (Fr., Kenosha, Wis./Reuther) chipped in 12 points. Max Cary(So., Geneva, Ill.), who entered the game averaging 13.1 points per game, was ill and missed his third-straight game. 

Kyle Nelson scored a game-high 24 points for the Vikings on 11-of-15 shooting, along with seven boards, while Troy Rorer scored 12 points. Carthage travels to Naperville, Ill., on Wednesday, Jan. 20 to play CCIW-opponent North Central College (8-7, 1-3 CCIW in a 7:30 p.m. game at Gregory Arena/Merner Fieldhouse.

“We have a good basketball team,” said Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic, “and you have to give them credit for making good decisions and establishing lead.  I could find better way to finish a game than we did, and we should never have 18 turnovers.  That's three games worth of turnovers.  It's a good win for us.  Tyler Pierce and Raul Guzman were both outstanding.  Steve Djurickovic had stretches tonight that were less than stellar, because he was dead tired.  Given the people we've played, we're obviously pleased at being 3-1, but North Central is going to tough on Wednesday.  They're a very good offensive team.”