The Carthage College men's basketball team (9-4, 1-1 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked 35th in the Jan. 5 “D3hoops.com” poll, lost to CCIW-opponent and No. 25 Illinois Wesleyan University (11-2, 2-0 CCIW), 79-69, on Saturday, Jan 9 at the Shirk Center in Bloomington, Ill.

 

The first half was close all the way. Carthage enjoyed an early, five-point lead, 12-7, at 14:43, but neither team led by more than three points over the final 13 minutes of the period. Illinois Wesleyan led by a point at the break, 32-31. In the second half, the Titans took a seven-point lead, 38-31, at 17:48. The Titans made it an eight-point game, 44-36, at 16:10 and led by eight again, 51-43, at 10:43. The Red Men got as close at four points, 55-51, at 8:58, but Illinois Wesleyan took off on a 13-2 run to take its largest lead of the game at 15 points, 68-53, at 4:17. The Titans went on to win by 10 points, 79-69.

 

Illinois Wesleyan shot a blistering 63 percent (25-40), including 72 percent in the second half (13-18), while Carthage shot 40 percent for the game (27-67). The Titans out-rebounded the Red Men, 38-27, and turned the ball over 15 times to just five turnovers for Carthage. Doug Sexauer led the Titans with a game-high 24 points and seven rebounds. Sean Johnson had 19 points and seven rebounds. Steve Djurickovic (Jr., Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kenosha-Bradford) scored 22 points on eight-of-21 field goals, along with five-of-five free throws, four rebounds and eight assists.  With an assist on a Raul Guzman three-pointer at 17:31 second half, Djurickovic collected his 358th career assist and passed Stan Kapka (357, 1983-86) as the Red Men's all-time leader in that category. Malcom Kelly (Fr., Kenosha, Wis./Reuther) had 16 points, and Tyler Pierce (Fr., Westmont, Ill.) chipped in 12 points. Max Cary  (So., Geneva, Ill.), who entered the game averaging 13.1 points per game, was ill and did not play.

“I couldn't be more disappointed,” said Carthage head coach Bosko Djurickovic. “I really like our basketball team, and I think we can compete in this thing all the way to the end. Give Illinois Wesleyan credit—they're a very well-balanced offensive basketball team. We played short-handed without Max Cary. Steve Djurickovic played a less-than-stellar game, and we were still in a position to win the game with about five minutes to go. We shut down the people we wanted to shut down, but we didn't do as good a job in other areas. We just didn't play very well. I'm mostly unhappy about the lost opportunity.” 

Carthage plays host to CCIW-opponent Elmhurst College (5-8, 0-2 CCIW) on Wednesday, Jan. 13 in a 7:30 p.m. game at Tarble Arena.