WAUKESHA, Wis. – The Carthage College Red Men got back to their winning ways on Wednesday as the men's basketball team traveled to instate rival, Carroll University, and left with a 69-60 win to end the season-long three-game losing streak.
 
The win sends Carthage to 12-6 on the year and 5-4 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, while the loss drops Carroll to 10-8 and 5-4 in conference.
 
Three Red Men players scored in double-figures including Mike Stevenson with a game-high 16, Brad Perry with 13 and Derek Mason with 11.  Perry added a game-high 12 boards as well to tab a double-double.
 
"Today was an opportunity to win a road conference game against a team that we are competing against for position in the league and we were able to that done tonight," said head coach Bosko Djurickovic.  "A tremendous effort tonight. Sometimes opportunity gives you something to run with and Derek Mason was sensational.  He took the ball and made some plays when we really needed him to; and Brad Perry was the Brad Perry that we had earlier in the year when we played at North Central.  It's on me to find Brad the best possible positions for him to be in.  He was terrific.  A wonderful team effort all around.  I thought we defended nicely and we made enough offensive plays to get ourselves the win."

In the first half, four Carroll turnovers due to the Carthage press early led to eight points off turnovers to take a 14-7 lead and force a Carroll TO with 13:47 remaining.  However unforced turnovers by the Red Men saw the turnover battle flip in favor of the Pioneers later in the half, and give Carroll a 12-7 advantage on the half.
 
Following the timeout by Carroll at 13:47, the Pioneers responded with an 8-0 run to take an 15-14 lead with 12:14 remaining in the half. 
 
The rest of the half would remain a one-possession game over the final 12-plus minutes, as Carthage and Carroll exchanged baskets to keep it within a three-point game each way and the Pioneers taking a 30-29 lead into the break.
 
Carthage held a slight advantage from the field shooting 13-of-30 for 43.3-percent to Carroll's 35.5-percent on 11-of-31 FG but Carroll did hold a significant advantage from deep as the Pioneers went 6-of-17 from three to Carthage's just 2-of-11. 
 
Brad Perry tied for a first half high nine points on 4-of-4 shooting from the field.  Carroll's Ben Widdes also tallied nine.
 
A three-point play by Mike Stevenson gave the Red Men their first lead of the second half, as his first free throw of the game put Carthage up 36-34 with 15:47 remaining and then Kevin Kozil would again off a Stevenson miss with an acrobatic reverse lay-up put-back.
 
Trailing by one, 49-48, Carthage went on an 8-0 run to take the largest lead of the game since early in the first behind a pair of points from Stevenson, Kozil, Perry and Derek Mason.
 
With Carroll looking to comeback at, 58-54, Mason answered with a deep three to put Carthage up seven again with 3:54 left in regulation.
 
Leading by four with time running out on the shot clock and leading 61-57, Stevenson hit a 20-footer to extend the Red Men's lead back to six with 2:51 left as the horn sounded.
 
It was the Carthage defense that came up big in the final minutes though, with Carthage allowing just eight points over the final 5:35 while forcing four turnovers, including three steals, two of which came from Mason in the final minute, and Brad Perry blocking two shots over that span.

On Mason's play Djurickovic noted, "Best performance he has had since joining us.  He may not have had a lot of opportunities but today we really did play well.  He is a guy who can get stuff done.  He is a playmaker.  Sometimes it doesn't always workout but this time it did.  I told him after the game "Great job man. You had an opportunity and you ran with it." So very proud of him, very proud of Brad Perry, very proud of all of them."
 
The Red Men return to action this weekend back at Tarble Arena as the Red Men look to avenge an early season loss, as Carthage hosts Augustana College at 7:00 p.m. following the Lady Reds game, which is scheduled for 5:00 p.m.