KENOSHA, Wis. – For the third time this season, the Carthage College men's basketball team has knocked-off a top-25 team in the country.  Saturday it was against #16 Augustana College Vikings, as the Red Men overcame a 20-point first half deficit to stun the Vikings, 74-70, in overtime.
 
The win moves Carthage to 13-6 in 2017 and 6-4 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, while the Vikings suffer their second loss of the season in the CCIW, falling to 8-2 in conference and 15-4 overall.

"Anytime you play Augustana you have to be ready to accept that proverbial punch in the mouth and we were not" opened head coach Bosko Djurickovic following the win.  "They forced us out farther and farther.  We did not do a good job executing a good defensive game plan and as a result they were more aggressive and got off to a big lead.  This game was won in the last five minutes of the first half rather than the first five minutes of the second half.  We could have been down 25 at the half with little chance to comeback.  We were able to get that cut to 12, which was manageable.  In the second half we played with as good of a pace or better than they did.  They turned the ball over like we had in the first half and what an excellent job by our guys on the defensive end to hold them below 40% from the field in the game.  Just a terrific job all the way around.  Brad Kruse was a warrior tonight and then the two freshmen, Kieinan Baltimore and Brad Perry, were pretty special.  They are completely different but each are special.  Having said that, it is just one game.  That was our talk after the game in the locker room.  If we were capable of playing 25 minutes the way we did tonight, then there should never be an excuse for not playing at that level.  If we can do that we will have a very nice six-game finish."
 
Despite a poor shooting first half, the Red Men managed to keep the game within reach at the break, down 36-24.  The Red Men opened the game just 2-17 from the field and 1-8 from deep over the first 11:19 of the game and still only found themselves down 20-8 thanks to tough defense. 
 
However after the Red Men cut the deficit to seven, courtesy of a Mike Kjeldsen three and Brad Perry jumper, Augustana went on a 14-1 run over 3:23 to put the Red Men in a 20-point hole at 34-14 with 3:58 remaining.
 
Carthage would respond to closeout the half with a 10-2 run of their own, behind five points from Kienan Baltimore, to head to the locker room down 36-24.
 
For the half the Red Men shot just 25 percent on 6-24 from the field, while Augustana went 13-31 for 41.9 percent.  Additionally the Vikings earned a 10-5 edge on second chance points by outrebounding Carthage 25-12 in the half.
 
Following a three by Augie's Jacob Johnston to open the scoring in the second half, Carthage began their comeback from down 13 with a 14-3 run to cut the Vikings' lead to four at 42-38 with 14:37 remaining with seven points coming from Perry inside.
 
The Red Men kept the game within nine over the next four minutes before a 7-0 run with four points from Perry and three from Baltimore tied the game at 51-51 with 7:55 remaining.
 
Carthage would later take their first lead at the 5:14 mark of the second half on a Kienan Baltimore and-one to give the Red Men their first lead of the game, 56-55.
 
Augustana responded however, taking a six-point lead with 2:36 remaining. A Jordan Thomas lay-up and Brad Kruse's first points of the game at the 1:55 mark cut the hole to two at 64-62. 
 
Thomas ended the night with six of his eight points coming in the second half to help the Red Men comeback. 
 
Trailing by two with ten seconds left under the Augustana hoop and after two Red Men timeouts, Kevin Kozil found Mike Stevenson on the inbound play to tie the game.  On Augie's final chance to win in regulation, Brad Perry came up with his second block of the night to send the game to overtime tied, 66-66. 
 
For Kozil who finished with five points, it was his game-high fifth assist.
 
In overtime, after three minutes of no scoring, the Red Men finally broke the tie on a Brad Kruse jumper.  Chrishawn Orange tied the game again with a pair of free throws for the Vikings before another Kienan Baltimore bucket and foul gave the Red Men a three-point lead, 71-68, with 1:34 remaining. 

On the play of Kruse and Baltimore, Djurickovic added "People and coaches love Brad Kruse's.  When people talk about our team they talk about Brad Perry cause a 6-10 guy is hard to find.  Then they talk about Kruse.  It is because he does everything that he possibly can to help his teammates and basketball team.  Coaches are absolutely enthralled with that.  Kienan Baltimore plays with as much confidence as any player that I have coached.  There are sometimes that you would like to get a line and reel him in a little bit because he makes plays that are very interesting.  But he is not afraid of big moments and his have come against Augustana, with 17 there and 20 tonight, and made three or four huge plays, which gave us the opportunity to comeback and win the game."
 
Orange finished with a game-high 22 points.
 
Once again, a pair of Augustana free throws would cut the lead to one until Brad Kruse soared for an offense put back layup to give the Red Men a 73-70 lead with 53-seconds remaining.  After an Orange missed three, Kruse would seal the win with a free throw to send the game final at 74-70.
 
 Off the bench, Kienan Baltimore led the Red Men with 20 points on 6-16 shooting from the field and 8-9 from the line.  Brad Perry added 17 points on 8-9 shooting and Mike Stevenson tacked on 12 points to round out the double-figure scorers. 
 
Kruse, who finished with seven points all coming late, grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds and one block, which came in the opening minutes of overtime.
 
The Red Men will look to extend their winning streak to three when they return to action on the road next with a midweek game at Elmhurst College at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 1^st.