KENOSHA, Wis. – The Carthage College Red Men bounced back from their first defeat of the season, which came Tuesday, to defeat Northland College Saturday at Tarble Arena, 79-60, in the fourth game of their six-game home stand to open the season.
 
The win sends Carthage to 3-1 on the young season, while Northland falls to 1-3.
 
"Tonight was an interesting basketball game because we ended up with a nice solid 19-point win and the game was never within reach in the second half against a good basketball team and because we weren't clean in the second half, you walk out of the gym asking what just happened," said head coach Bosko Djurickovic following the win.  "They are a good team who will be in contention in their league… For the first 20 minutes tonight we couldn't have played any better.  Their coach said we did a better job defensively against their guards than anyone they have played yet.  But we still have a bit of a hollow feeling because we didn't execute very well in the second half."
 
The first half saw the Red Men nearly double-up the Lumberjacks from the field as Carthage shot 20-of-31 for 64.5-percent to Northland's 33.3-percent on just 10-of-30 shooting from the field. After a tightly contested opening nine minutes that saw Carthage leading by one at 21-20, the Red Men exploded on a 30-7 run over the final 11:06 of the half to take a 24-point lead into the break up 51-27.  
 
Most of Carthage's success in the half came in the paint where the Red Men used their size to outscore Northland, 30-12 down low.   Center Brad Perry led the Red Men with 13 points as he hit all five of his field goals in the paint, while forward Mike Stevenson added 11 on four-of-five from the field and substitute Kienan Baltimore added seven points.  All of which came in the paint.
 
Despite shooting significant lower in the second half, 8-of-27 for 29.6-percent, the Red Men were able to keep the game out of reach of the Lumberjacks, who shot the exact same as Carthage in the final 20 minutes. 
 
Perry carried his strong performance over into the second half as he finished the game 8-of-9 from the field and 4-of-5 from the line for a team-high 20 points in the win.  Four other Red Men added double-figures in the scoring column led by Baltimore with 12, Brad Kruse and Stevenson each with 11 and Drew Joiner with ten.
 
On the play of the post players tonight Djurickovic said, "Our big guys have done a good job all year long.  Perry continues to play at a great efficiency.  He does not take bad shots.  He does not make bad plays.  He finished with ten boards, which is impressive.  And the combination of Stevenson and Baltimore played very well today.  It is a step in the right direction against a team that is pretty good.  Now we have Calvin in here on Tuesday and we will need to be ready to play."
 
Carthage's next game on Tuesday against Calvin College will be the final non-conference tune-up before the Red Men open play in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin next weekend.  Tip-off against the Knights is slated for 7:00 p.m. from Tarble Arena.