MIAMI, Fla. - The Carthage College men's basketball team put together a masterful second half performance in their HoopsMIA D3 Shootout opener on Monday evening, as the Red Men outscored the Generals of Washington & Lee University by 20 points in the final 20 minutes, to take the game 85-67.

The win moves the Red Men to 6-4 on the season, while the Generals fall to 5-3.

"We played a really good game tonight and had a very solid second half," said head coach Bosko Djurickovic after the win.  "Your good players have to be good players; Kruse was great all-night long and Jordan Thomas was superb in the second half.  Having said that, another strong night for Kamal Shasi and a really good night for Derek Mason.  Inside we had a solid effort by Perry, but Sean Johnson gets better every single night and that is a big part of what we were able to do tonight."

A highly contested first half saw the Generals take a two-point lead into the half, 37-35.  Carthage trailed much of the half but continued to hang around as the Red Men were led by Kruse with 13 points in the first half on 5-7 shooting and 2-3 from three.

Out of the break, the Red Men came out on fire behind Jordan Thomas, who scored 21-second half points to lead the Red Men.  After being limited to just two points in the first half, Thomas hit a pair of three's on the Red Men's first two possessions to quickly give Carthage a 41-39 lead, which they would never surrender.

Thomas' three's ignited a 26-13 run for the Red Men over the first 6:27 of the second half, to give Carthage their first double-digit lead of the game, 61-50.  During the run, Thomas led Carthage with 13 points, followed by Derek Mason and Brad Perry with four, Kamal Shasi with three and Brad Kruse with a pair.   

The Red Men built their lead to as many 22 late as a 15-2 run from Mason, Kruse, Thomas and Sean Johnson sealed the victory for Carthage.  

Defensively, the Red Men, played one of their best games of the season, as Carthage tied a program record with 15 blocks against the Generals.  Freshman Sean Johnson led the block party off the bench with six, which ties the big man for fourth all-time in a game by a Red Men.  Brad Kruse was next with five blocks and Brad Perry had four.

Thomas finished with a game-high 23 to lead all scorers, shooting 8-17 from the field and 5-8 from deep, as well as a team-high seven rebounds.   Brad Kruse finished with 20 points on 8-10 shooting and 3-4 from deep and Derek Mason scored 18 points on 7-12.  

Inside, the big men were nearly unstoppable for Carthage, as Perry and Johnson combined to go 8-10 from the field with Perry scoring nine points and Johnson setting a new career-high in his freshman season with eight on 4-4 shooting and tied with Shasi for the second-most rebounds on the team with six.

The Red Men will return to action in Florida on Wednesday as Carthage faces Southern Vermont University to conclude their HoopsMIA D3 Shootout at 8:00 p.m.