Box Score The Carthage College men's basketball team (2-1, 0-0 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) lost its home-opener on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 87-85 in double-overtime, to Olivet Nazarene University (6-3) at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.  The game was Carthage's first home double-overtime contest since coach Bosko Djurickovic's first Carthage game on Nov. 23, 1996, that one being a 95-90 win over Beloit College.  The Red Men saw five point leads erased in regulation and in both overtimes.
 
There were four lead changes and three ties in the first half, with Carthage leading by as much as five points, 26-21, at 1:12.  The Red Men led by three at halftime, 26-23.  The battle continued in the second period with 12 more lead changes and nine ties.  The Red had a pair of five-point leads, the last at 63-58 with 4:12 to play.  Carthage was still leading by three in regulation when the Tigers' Antonio Marshall drilled a three-pointer with 12 second remaining to send the game into overtime.  The Red Men had another five-point lead in the first overtime, 79-74, at 2:29, but Olivet Nazarene erased that by scoring the last five points of the period.  Greg Bennett made one free throw, and Jake Hasselbring scored on a layup with 29 seconds to play and then drilled two free throws with three seconds remaining to send the contest into a second overtime period.
 
Once again, Carthage had a five-point lead erased.  Kevin Sykes' three-pointer at 3:27 put the Red Men up, 84-79.  Ben Worner answered with a trey at 3:00 to make it 84-82, Hasselbring's jumper at 1:54 tied the game at 84 all.  A layup by Hasselbring at 1:06 put the Tigers up to stay, 86-84, and a free throw by Antonio Marshall with 10 seconds to go made it 87-84.  Carthage's Luke Johnson hit one free throw with nine seconds reaming to end the scoring at 87-85.
  
Olivet Nazarene shot 43 percent (32-74), while Carthage shot 44 percent (33-75).  The Tigers had a narrow, 46-45 rebounding edge.  Four Tigers scored in double figures.  Antonio Marshall led the way with 25 points on eight-of-14 field goals, including six-of-nine from three-point range.  Torey Laferney had 17 points, Jake Hasselbring 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Ben Worner added 10 points.  Carthage's Malcom Kelly (Jr., Kenosha, Wis./Reuther) scored a game-high 26 points on nine-of-27 from the floor, including four-of-13 three-pointers, along with nine rebounds.  Max Cary (Sr., Geneva, Ill.) had 15 points, four rebounds and four assists.  Tyler Pierce (Jr., Westmont, Ill.) had 12 points, nine boards and six assists, while Mitch Thompson (Jr., Orland Park, Ill..Sandburg) added 11 points and five rebounds.

“I'm very, very disappointed with the product on the court right now,” said coach Djurickovic.  “We are not a cohesive basketball team.  We have a bunch of individual pieces who play hard.  They're nice guys and work hard at practice, but we don't know how to be a cohesive unit yet.  Until we learn that, we're going to have some wild runs, both good and bad.  Olivet Nazarene made some ridiculous shots, but that's how they play.  We had every opportunity to win this game, but maybe we needed a wakeup call.  If we don't play better than this, we're going to have a tough time with Calvin and Hope this weekend.”

On Friday-Saturday, Dec. 2-3, the Red Men travel to Grand Rapids, Mich., to play in the eighth-annual CCIW/MIAA Classic at Calvin College's Van Noord Arena.  Carthage plays Calvin College (3-3) on Friday, Dec. 2 at 7:30 p.m. (all times EST), preceded by No. 13 Wheaton College (Ill., 5-0) taking on No. 27 Hope College (4-1) at 5:30 p.m..  On Saturday, Dec. 3, Carthage plays Hope at 3:30 p.m., and Wheaton (Ill.) faces Calvin at 5:30 p.m.