Box Score

The Carthage College men's basketball team (22-5, 12-2, 1st place College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked 16th in the Feb. 23 “D3hoops.com” poll and second in the Feb. 24 NCAA Division III Midwest Regional poll, won the title game of the CCIW Men's Basketball Tournament, 70-67, over No. 29 Illinois Wesleyan University (20-7) on Saturday, Feb. 27 at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis. The win gives the Red Men the league's automatic qualifier to the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship. The field and pairings for the 61-team tournament will be announced on Monday, March 1, with Carthage having a very good chance of playing host to first and second-round games on Friday-Saturday, March 5-6.

The Red Men survived a semifinal game in the conference tournament on Friday, Feb. 26 with a hard-fought, 55-52 win over Augustana College (Ill., 16-10). In the other semifinal contest, Illinois Wesleyan University (20-6) defeated No. 30 Wheaton College (Ill., 18-8) by a 68-59 margin.

The Illinois Wesleyan game was very up tempo, much different than Friday's slugfest against Augustana College (Ill.). Carthage led from the opening minutes, except for a 13-13 tie at 12:17. A 23-13 run from that point gave the Red Men a 10-point lead, 36-26, with 41 seconds to play, and Carthage led by eight at the half, 36-28. The Red Men went up by 13 points, 45-32 at 16:20, and it looked like a blow-out was forthcoming. Carthage still led by 13, 49-36, at 14:13 when the Titans mounted a furious comeback with a 15-2 run to tie the game, 51-51, at 7:18. The contest was tied again, 55-55, at 5:11, and 58-58 at 3:35. Illinois Wesleyan took the lead, 60-59, at 3:17 and was still leading by one, 67-66, with 42 seconds remaining. A layup by Steve Djurickovic with 23 seconds to go put the Red Men up to stay, 68-67. The Titans' Sean Johnson missed a layup with eight seconds on the clock. Mitch Thompson rebounded for Carthage, was fouled and made both free throws for the final 70-67 margin. Sean Johnson missed a wild three-pointer at the buzzer that could have tied the game.

Carthage shot 55 percent (30-55), while Illinois Wesleyan shot 46 percent (26-56). The Titans had a narrow, 31-29 edge in rebounding. Carthage's Steve Djurickovic (Jr., Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kenosha-Bradford) scored a game-high 26 points on12-of-20 field goals and two-of-two free throws, along with five assists. Tyler Pierce (Fr., Westmont, Ill.) had 13 points on six-of-nine from the floor, along with six rebounds and four assists. Max Cary (So., Geneva, Ill.) added 12 points. Sean Johnson led IWU with 17 points, while Doug Sexauer had 14 points.  The crowd of 2,410 was a Tarble Arena record and the largest crowd to watch a Carthage game since a March 2, 2002 NCAA game against Hope College drew 2,465.

“It was a heck of a game,” said Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic. “Illinois Wesleyan had every chance to win, but we made a couple of plays at the end. We're enjoying it. Tyler Pierce was outstanding, even playing with a migraine headache. Mitch Thompson was also sensational, and made two huge free throws at the end. Illinois Wesleyan played awfully hard. We had a great crowd. As far as the NCAAs go, we could win six games and win a national championship, or we could lose our first game. We're not big enough or physically strong enough to separate ourselves from other teams every night. Hopefully, we can stay at home next weekend, but we'll go wherever they send us. Washington University (Mo.) is probably going to be one site, but after that, who knows?”