Box Score
The Carthage College men's basketball team (19-5, 11-2 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked 20th in the Feb. 16 “D3hoops.com” poll and second in the Feb. 17 NCAA Division III Midwest Regional poll, defeated CCIW-opponent North Park University (12-12, 6-7 CCIW), 61-55, on Wednesday, Feb. 17 at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.
The win clinched at least a share of the CCIW title for the Red Men. Second-place Illinois Wesleyan University (19-5, 10-3) nipped Augustana College (Ill.), 62-59, on Wednesday in Rock Island, Ill., to remain one game behind Carthage in the conference standings. Carthage's last conference title came in 2003 when the Red Men shared the championship with both Augustana (Ill.) and Illinois Wesleyan.
North Park opened up an early, 14-6 lead at 13:06. Carthage tied the game, 14-14, at 10:59 and went ahead, 16-14, at 9:36. The Red Men inched away to a 12-point lead at the break, 35-23. Carthage went up by 15 points, 38-23, at 19:17 second period. North Park used a 9-0 run to close to within six, 38-32, at 16:38 before the Red Men went back up by 13 points, 49-36, at 8:08. The Vikings made one more run at the Red Men, closing to within five points, 58-53, with 34 seconds remaining. Free throws by
Steve Djurickovic, Mitch Thompson and Malcom Kelly put Carthage up by eight, 61-53, with 16 seconds to go, as the Red Men went on to win by six points, 61-55.
Carthage shot 44 percent (24-55), while North Park shot just 37 percent (17-46). The Red Men had a narrow, 33-32 rebounding edge over the Vikings. Carthage's
Steve Djurickovic (Jr., Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kenosha-Bradford) scored a game-high 26 points on 11-of-16 field goals, including one-of-three three pointers, along with three-of-five free throws, four rebounds and four assists. Tyler Pierce (Fr., Westmont, Ill.) was the only other Carthage player in double figures with 10 points and five rebounds. Emanuel Crosby led North Park with 14 points, while Shaun Collins had 12 points.
“Unfortunately,” said Carthage coach
Bosko Djurickovic, “these kind of games have been the rule, not the exception. We're kind of finesse and free-flowing team that likes to get stuff done without teams beating on us. A couple of league teams play a more deliberate style than that. North Park played hard right until the end, and we let them get off to a good start. We did a good job defensively. I didn't like our second-half performance, offensively, one bit. Malcom Kelly made some big plays down the stretch that put us over the top. Give our guys credit—we played pretty well. To win a share of the league title is special, but we want to win on Saturday at Millikin and win the whole thing and put that to rest.”
On Saturday, Feb. 20, the Red Men conclude their regular-season schedule by traveling to Decatur, Ill., to take on conference-opponent Millikin University (7-17, 2-11) in a 4:30 p.m. contest at the Griswold Center.
