KENOSHA, Wis. – The Carthage College Red Men fought back from a 16-point first half deficit to take a second half lead, however the Carroll University Pioneers escaped Tarble Arena with an 81-76 win Wednesday night.
"Tonight we had a very disappointing outcome to a very competitive basketball game," said head coach
Bosko Djurickovic following the tough loss. "We allowed Carroll to be the aggressor. We had talked about that at nauseam the last three days. The two games that [Carroll] had struggled in the conference have been at Augustana and at home against Elmhurst because they matched Carroll's physicalness and then have gone beyond it. Tonight we let them dictate the game in the first half to the point where we were chasing 16 points by the time we got stabilized. Then we just didn't have enough minutes down the stretch to finish the game. But we are very disappointed. What we have done in our last two games is, we taken a conference race that could very well have run through our place and put ourselves in a position where we are still fine, to now, we are one of seven teams that think they have a chance to compete for the top part of the conference and certainly the conference tournament.
The second-straight loss drops the Red Men to 11-5 on the season and 4-3 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, while Carroll moves to 9-7 overall and 4-3 in the conference.
Carthage was led on the night by
Mike Stevenson, who tied with a game-high 19 points including a 10-10 night at the stripe. Also in double figures was
Brad Kruse and
Kevin Kozil, each with 11. Kruse added a team high seven rebounds and Kozil had a game-high five assists.
After a tightly contested opening three minute, Carroll opened the game up courtesy of a 22-6 run which lasted 5:42 with the Pioneers hitting 8-of-11 field goals and forcing the Red Men into six turnovers, to build a sixteen-point, 37-21, lead with 6:44 remaining in the half.
Carthage responded with a 14-2 run led by
Mike Stevenson and
Ryan Kase, who had six and five respectively during the run, to cut the lead down to four at 39-35.
After exchanging a basket and a pair of free throws apiece, Carthage would go into the halftime break down just four, 43-39, after the first 20 minutes.
For the half, Carroll just edged out the Red Men from the field, shooting 51.6% to Carthage's 50.0% and earned a 16-6 edge in points off turnovers as the Red Men turned the ball over ten times in the opening stanza.
A 7-0 run out of the break by the Red Men, capped by a
Jordan Thomas three-ball, gave Carthage a 46-43 lead with 18:17 remaining in the game. It was Carthage's largest lead of the game unfortunately, as Carroll retook the lead for good at 13:38 to begin an 8-0 run and go up, 60-53.
Carthage constantly fought back in the highly competitive and physical game, which saw 60 total fouls called; 31 on Carroll to 29 on the Red Men.
Carroll was able to seal the win from the line as the Pioneers finished the final 6:30 going 9-of-12 from the line, halting the Red Men's chances to cut into the late hole.
Carroll's Nick Penny tied Stevenson for the game-high with 19 points and was joined in double figures by Kyle Keranen and Kale Maupin with 11 each and Charlie Soule with ten.
The Red Men will look to snap their first losing streak of the season on Saturday, January 21st when the Red Men head down to Wheaton College for another CCIW matchup. Tip-off is schedule for 7:00 p.m.
Djurickovic stated looking ahead, "We will get back after it and see what we can do Saturday and next Wednesday. Both are eminently winnable. We just have to put ourselves in a position to do it."
