Kenosha, Wis. - Carthage College suffered their first loss of the season, as a banged up Red Men team fell in the Carthage College Classic championship game to Lake Forest College on Saturday, 71-65.

The loss drops the Red Men to 1-1 on the young season, while the Foresters move to 2-1 after dropping their season opener.

"We talked a lot during the preseason that last year we got off to too many slow starts last year and that we wanted to get off to better starts this year.  We did last night.  Tonight we were right back to where we were a year ago," said head coach Bosko Djurickovic.  "Tonight we missed our first ten three's.  We started 3-for-18 in the first half and when you are chasing all night against a team that is efficient it makes life hard.  Lake Forest is a nice basketball team that will win 17 or 18 games and contend in their conference, so it is no shame to lose to them.  But when you don't give yourself the best opportunity, with turnovers and missed defensive rebounds, you pay the price."

A rough shooting opening five minutes of the game had both teams struggling to score as Carthage was 1-of-6 and Lake Forest was 2-8 to start the game, giving Lake Forest a slight 4-3 edge.  The Red Men's shooting woes continued until the 7:08 mark of the first half, when a Jacob Polglase three play sparked the Carthage offense.

Following Polglase's three, the Red Men closed the half on a 18-9 run to cut a 12-point deficit to three at the intermission, 28-25.  Polglase finished second on the team in scoring in the half with six, behind starting point guard Kamal Shasi with seven.  

Polglase finished with ten points and Shasi added nine, including a perfect 6-6 from the free throw line.

Things picked up for both teams in the second half as the Red Men, who had shot 30.8% in the first half shot 58.3% in the second, including 50.0% from three.  Unfortunately the Foresters one-upped the Red Men, hitting 55.6% of their second half shots and going 9-13 for nearly 70% from three over the final 20 minutes.

Seniors Steve Leazer and Brad Kruse tried led the Red Men as they continued to battle from behind, as Leazer poured in 15 of his team-high 17 points in the second half and Kruse had ten to finish with 14.  

Down the stretch it was Lake Forest's Eric Porter that led the Foresters to the win, as the guard drained three-straight threes to lead a 9-1 run that put the Foresters up for good at 70-62 after the Red Men had tied it at 61-61, eventually holding on for the 71-65 win.

The Red Men will look to bounce back following the Thanksgiving holiday, as Carthage heads down to St. Louis, Missouri for a pair of games at Webster University.  The Red Men will open with Centre College on Friday, November 24th at 6:00 p.m.

All-Tournament Team
Eric Porter (LFC) - Most Outstanding Player
Orlando Brown (LFC)
Brad Kruse (CAR)
Steve Leazer (CAR)
Taylor Krocker (RU)
Isaiah Reed (GLCC)