KENOSHA, Wis. – The Carthage College Red Men fell Tuesday night, in their fifth of six straight home games to open the season, to the Calvin College Knights, 88-83.
The loss drops the Red Men to 3-2 on the season, while Calvin gets their second win of the season to move to 2-3.
Following the game head coach
Bosko Djurickovic stated, "Calvin is a good team. They will finish with 17, 18, 19 wins. They play in a league that is not as good as ours, and yet, the two good teams we played so far we lost to. We lost to River Falls last week and Calvin tonight. Both games we had every chance to win. There is really no reason for us to be discouraged, this will be a very good basketball team and we should get better as the year goes along. But we have to find some keys that get us there… We have been doing some stuff pretty well, and yet, evidently not well enough. So it's back to the drawing board tonight and we will see what we can get done for Saturday."
Mike Stevenson finished with a season-high 21 points, while
Jordan Thomas,
Mike Kjeldsen and
Reggie Banks also scored in double-figures, with 15, 11 and 10 respectively.
Strong shooting performances set the way for a high scoring first half as the Red Men shot 70.4-percent from the field on 19-of-27, while the Knights kept it close with a 54.8-percent shooting half on 17-of-31 from the field. Additionally, the Red Men and Knights went blow-for-blow from deep, hitting 5-of-10 threes apiece.
While Stevenson led the Red Men to a 24-18 advantage in the paint with 11 first half points, Calvin kept things tight with a 10-2 edge on second chance points thanks to eight offensive boards to give Carthage a 46-45 lead after the opening 20 minutes.
After earning a 16-10 rebounding advantage in the first half, Calvin would continue to pressure the Red Men in the second half, with nine more offensive boards that translated into 15 more second chance points and a minus-16 disadvantage to the Red Men in rebounding for the game.
"We have been talking about rebounding for three years and emphasizing it and after the first four games we were plus-seven, plus-seven and a half. Tonight we were minus-17," said the head coach "This is what Calvin does well. They are always huge. They were able to force their will on us one-on-one around the basket and it wasn't necessarily their big guys. We competed very well… We limited their big guys to under 50-percent, yet we let their guards hurt us. The pounded us on the boards. We never found the right answer defensively and as a result we lost a close game."
Despite the huge Knights' advantage on the boards, the Red Men were able to keep the game within reach throughout the second half, with the Knights taking their biggest lead of the game with 1:25 remaining at 83-75.
The Red Men however would not let up, as a
Jordan Thomas three cut the lead to five. It was Thomas again following a Knights' free throw, as Thomas hit a layup with 24 seconds remaining to cut the deficit to 84-80. On the ensuing inbounds play, Thomas stole the pass and dished it off to Stevenson who hit the lay up and was fouled.
It would be as close as the Red Men would get however, as Calvin went 4-for-4 from the line down the stretch to down Carthage.
The Red Men return to action in their final home contest of the calendar year as Carthage opens the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin season on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. as they host Millikin University in a men's women's doubleheader. The Lady Reds will open the day at 5:00 p.m. at Tarble Arena.
