CHICAGO – The Carthage College men's basketball team improved to 5-1 on their season-long six-game road swing on Wednesday night, as the Red Men went into North Park University and knocked off the #10 ranked Vikings, 82-76.
 
The win moves Carthage to 9-3 overall on the season and 3-1 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, while the #10 Vikings fall to 9-2 and 2-2 in the CCIW.
 
Three Carthage starters scored in double-figures on the night, led by Mike Stevenson with 18, Jordan Thomas with 12 and Brad Perry with 11.  Off the bench, Drew Joiner had one of the best night's for Carthage as he went 5-of-7 from the field for 14 points, including one of the biggest threes of the game in the second half.
 
Stevenson added 12 rebounds, including five offensive, to lead the Red Men on the boards, which outrebounded the Vikings 42-37 in the game.
 
"Really good second half effort tonight in the win," said assistant men's basketball coach Steve Djurickovic.  "Perry and Thomas got us off to a good start in the second half.  We did a better collective job defensively on Juwan Henry and Jordan Robinson, who are outstanding players.  Drew Joiner gave us great minutes off the bench in the second half, including a huge three late to give us some breathing room and Kienan Baltimore gave a huge spark late on both ends of the floor. Brad Kruse's defense in the second half was outstanding and made their guys work very hard for every shot.  North Park is a great team that is very difficult to matchup with but our guys stuck with the game plan and came out with a huge conference road win to finished a stretch of six very tough road games."
 
After opening the scoring on a Perry layup on the first possession of the game, North Park went on an 8-0 run to force the Red Men to take an early timeout just 2:08 into the half.  After the Red Men battled back to within one at 13-12, North Park went on a 17-4 until Kevin Kozil sunk a three with 9:31 remaining to cut the 14-point deficit, 30-16, to 11. 
 
An and-one three-point play by Drew Joiner continued to cut into the deficit and forced the Vikings to use a timeout with 8:11 remaining in the half as they led Carthage 30-22.
 
A 7-0 run by the Vikings answered the short Carthage run to give North Park their biggest lead of the game with 6:49 left in the first at 37-22.
 
Carthage once again answered with a 10-2 run of their own, led by Stevenson and Mike Kjeldsen with five apiece, to knock the lead down to seven at 41-34.  However a three point field goal by NPU's Colin Lake sent the Vikings into the locker room at the half up 10, 44-34, in a half that saw North Park shoot 56.3-percent from the field, 18-of-32 and 6-of-9 from three.  Carthage finished the half shooting 12-of-33 for 36.4-precent from the field and 4-of-10 from deep.
 
As the Red Men have done time and time again this season, Carthage would begin to chip away at the big lead after the Vikings opened the half with a basket to make it a 12-point game.  Started off by a free throw by Brad Kruse, the Red Men would go on a 20-7 run over the next 5:52, with Thomas and Perry each tallying seven points, while Stevenson added five.  The comeback was completed at 13:41 when Perry laid a basket off an assist from Kozil to give Carthage their first lead since the opening possession, 54-53.
 
Following a pair of threes by the Vikings to answer, Carthage went on another run, this time a 15-5 run to take their biggest lead of the game, to that point, at 72-67, which was capped off following a defensive possession that saw Kozil get a pair of blocks on Lake before a long outlet found Drew Joiner in the corner for a wide open three to give him 10 points on the night.
 
The Red Men looked to maintain and extend the lead with the long ball, as Carthage matched NPU's shooting with threes from Kjeldsen and Kozil.
 
Defensively, the Red Men locked down the explosive North Park offense much of the second half, limiting them to just 12-of-34 from the field and 2-of-12 from three point range, while the Red Men flipped the script and shot 55.2-percent from the field in the final 20 minutes on 16-of-29 field goals and 11-of-13 at the line.
 
Leading 77-72 with 1:23 remaining it became a free throw contest for the Red Men as the Vikings started to send them to the line to save the clock with Kozil, Stevenson and Joiner going a combined 5-of-6 to closeout the win.

Jordan Robinson led all scorers in the game with 19 points and 15 rebounds, while Henry and Darius Brown added 16 points each and T.J. Cobbs finished with 10 points.
 
Next up for Carthage, the Red Men return home for the first time in 2017 to face the Bluejays of Elmhurst College on Saturday, January 7th at Tarble Arena.  Tip-off is set for approximately 7:00 p.m. as the second part of the men's and women's double header.  The Lady Reds will play Elmhurst as well with their game time set for 5:00 p.m.