The Carthage College men's basketball team (14-4, 6-1 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked 27th in the Jan. 26 “D3hoops.com” poll, finished the first half of its CCIW schedule on Wednesday, Jan. 27 with a 76-61 win over North Park University (10-8, 4-3 CCIW) at the North Park Gym in Chicago. The win over the Vikings sets up a battle for first place on Saturday, Jan. 30 when Red Men play host to Illinois Wesleyan University in a 7:30 p.m. game at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis. Illinois Wesleyan remained tied for first with Carthage, thanks to a 71-64 win over Augustana College (Ill.) on Wednesday.

 

Carthage jumped out to a quick 8-2 lead behind a pair of three-pointers by Steve Djurickovic. North Park took a 17-15 lead at 13:12 on a three by Nick Williams. The Red Men broke open the Vikings' 2-3 zone with a 12-2 run to open up an eight-point lead, 27-19, at 7:26. Carthage scored the 12 points on four three-pointers, two each by Djurickovic and Malcom Kelly. The Vikings, trailing by eight, 30-22, pulled to within four, 30-26, at 3:25 on three by Williams. Djurickovic answered with his sixth trey of the first half to put the Red Men back up by seven, 33-26, at 2:55. North Park closed the gap to three at halftime, 35-32. Djurickovic had 18 points in the first period, while Williams burned the nets for 22 points on eight-of-11 field goals, including four-of-six three-pointers and two-of-two free throws. 

 

In the second half, North Park tied the game, 40-40, at 15:19 before Kelly drilled a three at 14:54 to put Carthage back up to stay, 43-40. Leading by two, 53-51, at 8:23, Carthage's Max Cary scored on a three and a layup to put the Red Men up by seven, 58-51, at 7:36. Carthage finally began to pull away, taking an 11-point lead, 64-53, at 5:11 on a pair of free throws by Djurickovic. The Red Men made it a 15-point game, 73-58, at 1:20 on an alley-oop dunk by Mitch Thompson from Djurickovic.

 

Carthage shot 45 percent (25-56), including 46 percent from three-point range (16-35), while North Park shot 49 percent (21-43). The Vikings out-rebounded the Red Men, 33-26. Three Carthage players scored in double figures. Steve Djurickovic (Jr., Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kenosha-Bradford) scored game-high 36 points on 10-of-17 field goals, including eight-of-10 three-pointers and a perfect eight-of-eight free throws, along with four rebounds and 10 assists. With the eight-of-10 three-point attempts, Djurickovic tied a CCIW game record for three-point field-goal percentage first set by Millikin University's Joe Guin against Wheaton College (Ill.) in 1988 and later matched by North Park's Jack Ecker in his 54-point game effort versus Carthage in 1995.

Malcom Kelly (Fr., Kenosha, Wis./Reuther) had a season-high 18 points on six-of-14 from the floor and five-of-13 from three-point range. Max Cary (So., Geneva, Ill.), making his first appearance since the Jan. 6 Wheaton College (Ill.) game after a bout of mononucleosis, chipped in 10 points. Nick Williams paced North Park with 29 points on 10-of-17 field goals, including four-of-seven three-pointers, along with eight rebounds. Roshawn Russell had 14 points, and Emmanuel Crosby added points.