Box Score
The Carthage College men's basketball team (23-5, 12-2, 1st place College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked 14th in the March 2 “D3hoops.com” poll, won its first-round game in the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship on Friday, March 5 with an 84-70 decision over Aurora University (18-11) at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis. In the other first-round contest, No. 24 Anderson University (23-5) upset No. 6 the University of St. Thomas (23-4), 73-71. The Saturday, March 6 second-round game between Carthage and Anderson gets underway at 7 p.m.
The Red Men led from the 18:15 mark first half. Carthage went up by 10 points, 26-16, at 7:47 and led by six at halftime, 38-32. The lead went to 13 points in the second half, 48-35, at 17:06. The Spartans got as close as seven points on two occasions, the last at 52-45 at 13:33 before Carthage started the pull away. The Red Men built a 16-point lead, 68-52, at 7:29, and led by as much as 18, 82-64, at 1:35. Carthage went on to win by 14 points, 84-70.
Carthage shot 53 percent (30-57), while Aurora shot just 39 percent (24-61). Carthage out-rebounded the Spartans, 37-33. Five Red Men scored in double figures.
Steve Djurickovic (Jr., Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kenosha-Bradford) scored a team-high 23 points on eight-of-15 field goals, including two-of-five three-pointers, along with five-of-seven free throws, seven rebounds and 10 assists. Malcom Kelly came off the bench to score 16 points on four-of-eight shooting, including four-of-six from three-point range. Mitch Thompson (Fr., Orland Park, Ill./Sandburg) had 14 points and game highs of 12 rebounds and six blocked shots. Tyler Pierce (Fr., Westmont, Ill.) scored 13 points with five rebounds, while Max Cary (So., Geneva, Ill.) added 11 points. Ari Iventosch topped Aurora with a game-high 27 points on 11-of-15 from the floor.
“The biggest key to the game," said Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic, "was that Mitch Thompson was able to guard Lance Robinson without help. Robinson had 202 assists going into this game. Mitch kept him in front of him, blocked some shots and took him out of the game. He did not have a single basket for the night. Maybe Tyler Pierce's first five minutes of the second half was the key to the game. He was able to dominate inside and get us to that ten or eleven point lead. Ivantosch was terrific tonight. Dusty Magee was terrific for what seems like nine years. I don't know that I've had a game in many, many years where we ended up having to play four guards almost the whole second half. Thompson did a great job, not only with the blocked shots but with double-digit rebounds and shot a good percentage. We can still play better. I'm not a particularly fun guy that way. I expect the game to be won 160-0. I think we should score on every possession and I don't think the other team should ever score. Tonight was good enough for now. Tomorrow at 7 p.m. it starts all over again. We're all excited about it and I'm sure Anderson is too. They're a very good team.”
“Carthage is pretty good," said Aurora coach James Lancaster. "You know that coaches have a choice to make when they come in. Do you want to take the ball out of
Steve Djurickovic's hands and see if the other guys can beat you or try to take the other guys out and let him. The first half we tried to take it out of his hands and that didn't work. The second half, we tried to take it away from the other guys and that's where Stevie stepped up. They can go. I think they have the best player in the country. I've watched him grow up and I'd put the ball in his hands too.”
Free-throws were the key in Anderson's 73-71 win over St. Thomas (Minn.). The Ravens hit 28-of-33 free-throws, including six in a row with the game tied at 58-58, to build a six-point lead and hold off a late charge by the Tommies. St. Thomas had 10 more field goals than Anderson but only six free-throws, and that spelled the difference.
“Anderson had an answer for everything we did – from shooting the three-pointer to getting to the line as much as they did,” St. Thomas coach Steve Fritz said. “We just couldn't pull it off at the end.”
The No. 24 Ravens hit only five treys, all by Ty Riddle from well beyond the NBA arc. Riddle had 21 points to lead three teammates who also finished in double figures. “We're always very aggressive on defense, and it's not unusual that we get a lot of fouls,” Fritz said. “But we had too many (26) tonight, and they took advantage of it.”
Guard Alex Healy led the Tommies with a career-high 26 points and added six assists. Center Tommy Hannon scored 11 off the bench, including nine in the first half, and guards Joe Scott and Tyler Nicolai each had nine.
Fritz praised his players in the locker room and told them he was proud of how hard they played throughout a season without a true home arena. “It's tough being on the road all of the time,” he said. “That takes a lot out of you. You were real warriors out there. We just couldn't get enough shots to fall tonight.”
