Box Score

It came down to this on Wednesday night. Wheaton College (Ill.) had no answer for Steve Djurickovic. Carthage's junior guard scored a career-high 44 points on Wednesday, Feb. 3, as the Red Men won a thriller over the Thunder, 68-63, (13-7, 5-4 CCIW) at King Arena in Wheaton, Ill. Carthage (16-4, 8-1 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) was ranked 23rd in the Feb. 2 “D3hoops.com” poll and second in the Feb. 3 NCAA Division III Midwest Regional poll.

Wheaton (Ill.) took the lead in the opening minutes of the game and went up by seven points, 15-8, at 12:51. Still trailing by seven, 27-20, at 6:37, the Red Men took off on a 12-4 run to take 32-31 lead at 3:50. Steve Djurickovic and Malcom Kelly combined for 10 of those 12 points on a jumper and a three-pointer apiece. The game went back and forth for the rest of period, with the Thunder leading by a point at the break, 38-37. The game remained pretty much a dead heat until Carthage opened up a seven-point lead, 56-49, at 8:25 on a Max Cary steal and a layup. The Red Men led by eight, 59-51, at 6:24. The Thunder got within three, 59-56, at 5:10, but Djurickovic went over the 40-point mark with a layup at 2:52 to give Carthage a five-point lead, 61-56. The Thunder closed to within three again, 61-58, but once again, Djurickovic answered, this time with a three-point play to five Carthage a six-point lead, 64-58, at 1:53.

Wheaton's Ben Panner nailed a three-pointer with 54 seconds remaining to pull the Thunder to within two, 65-63, but the Red Men's Mitch Thompson sank a pair of free throws with 22.7 seconds to go to put Carthage up by four, 67-63. Malcom Kelly made the back end of a two-shot free throw with nine seconds to go to close out the scoring, giving the Red Men a 68-63 decision.

Carthage shot 50 percent (23-46), including 57 percent in the first half (13-23), while Wheaton (Ill.) shot 45 percent for the game (23-51). The Thunder out-rebounded the Red Men, 30-22. 

Steve Djurickovic (Jr., Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kenosha-Bradford) scored a career-high 44 points on 15-of-25 field goals, including four-of-five three-pointers and a perfect 10-of-10 free throws. Djurickovic's 44 points is tied for second on Carthage's all-time list with Dave Rosenbalm, who scored 44 against Millikin University in 1974 and trailing only Paul Hubbard's school-record 47 points versus Lake Forest College in 1963. The last Carthage player to score 40 or more points was Jason Wiertel with 43 points, also against Wheaton (Ill.), in 1999. 

No other Carthage player scored in double figures. Malcom Kelly (Fr., Kenosha, Wis./Reuther) added nine points. Ben Panner topped Wheaton with 22 points, while Tim McCrary had 20 points and nine rebounds.

“We had poor defensive first half” said Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic, “and Wheaton was running around pretty much un-checked by us.  We were just a half-step behind.  The guys knew we had to play better in the second half, and they did a good job.  Steve Djurickovic was extra live tonight, but he just took what they gave him.  They decided to stop everyone else and let him score, and that's just what he did.  If Steve goes eight-for-25 instead of 15-for-25, they win.  The league race has sort of crystallized, and we have a very tough game coming up with Augustana this Saturday.  You know Augustana is going to leave it all on the floor.  We should be in good shape as far as getting into the conference tournament, but now we have to say focused on each game as we try to win the conference title and play host to that tournament.  Those last two things are far from decided.”

On Saturday, Feb. 6, the Red Men play host to conference-opponent Augustana College (Ill., 13-7, 6-3 CCIW) in a 7:30 p.m. contest at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.