KENOSHA, Wis. – The Carthage College men's basketball team overcame a second half comeback to win their fifth straight game on Saturday, as the Red Men returned home for the first time in over a month and defeated the Elmhurst College Bluejays at Tarble Arena, 75-67.
 
The win moves Carthage to 4-1 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin for the first time since the 2013-14 season and 10-3 overall.  The loss for Elmhurst sends the Bluejays to 5-8 on the season and 1-3 in the conference.
 
It was one of the most well-balanced scoring performances for the Red Men that they have had on the season with Kienan Baltimore leading the way with 15 points followed by Mike Stevenson with 11, Drew Joiner with 10, Brad Perry with nine and Brad Kruse, Jordan Thomas and Kevin Kozil each with eight.  Kruse also led the Red Men with 10 rebounds and nine assists on the night as he came close to an elusive triple-double.
 
"A guy a lot smarter than us once said, "They don't put pictures on scorecards."  We probably didn't deserve to win this one as much as they did but in the end we were able to find a way to make enough plays down the stretch to get ourselves a win," said head coach Bosko Djurickovic following the win.   "Tomorrow when someone picks up the paper our score will be on the left side and that is all you can try and get done.  This is a really good basketball conference.  There are no gimme's.  Elmhurst is a fine team that is always prepared to the max and they were again tonight.  They targeted what they wanted to offensively and made our looks at the basket very difficult."
 
Carthage grabbed an early 12-5 lead courtesy of a pair of threes from Kozil and Thomas and a pair of second chance opportunities created by Brad Kruse on the offensive glass.  Kruse put one of the second chance efforts back in himself to lead the Red Men during the opening run with four points.  Elmhurst quickly answered with a 12-2 run of their own led by Jake Rhode who scored seven points during the stretch and had nine in the first half before leaving with an apparent injury.   The Bluejays would lead most of the way the rest of the half, extending their lead to as many as seven, 30-23, with 6:03 left before Ryan Kase's three kept the game close.
 
Carthage finished the first half after the hot start shooting 12-of-35 for 34.3-percent and 6-of-13 from deep, while Elmhurst caught fire after opening cold to shoot a blazing 57.1-percent from the field and from three on 16-of-28 and 4-of-7 respectively.
 
Carthage was able to keep the Bluejays within reach much of the early part of the half, while trailing by seven, 54-47, with 11:25 remaining in the game.  
 
Then the small lineup Kienan Baltimore, Drew Joiner, Brad Kruse, Kevin Kozil and Derek Mason took over.  Over a stretch of 8:03, the Red Men outscored the Bluejays 24-5 to take a 71-59 lead with 3:19 remaining in the game.  Baltimore led the Red Men with 12 of points coming during the run, while Mason and Joiner each cashed in clutch threes as the Red Men shot 4-of-6 from deep during the run and 8-of-13 from the field.  On the defensive side, Brad Kruse led the lock down defense that forced five turnovers and held Elmhurst to 2-of-10 from the field, while Kruse recorded two blocks over the run to go with his game-high three. 
 
The head coach commented, "Baltimore, Kruse and Kozil were just stellar.  Especially Baltimore in the second half.  Kienan made two or three absolute cold-blooded shots that we needed at those times.  Kruse was all over the floor tonight.  He finished with nine assists and ten rebounds so his performance was key.  Derek Mason hit a huge three that went with the huge three that Kase hit in the first half.  Those are bigtime things that make the difference in a very close basketball game."
 
Jalen Loving led Elmhurst off the bench with 16 points, while Caleb Mowry and Derek Dotlich joined in double figures with 13 and 10 respectively.
 
The Red Men return to Tarble for their final non-conference game of the year on Tuesday, January 10th at 7:00 p.m. when Carthage entertains the Illinois Institute of Technology.