BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The Carthage College Red Men battled to win a tightly contested College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin opener, going on the road to open their conference title defense with a 74-72 come-from-behind victory at Illinois Wesleyan University, Saturday night.
 
The win moves Carthage to 4-2 overall on the year and 1-0 in the CCIW, while the Red Men hand the Titans their first loss of the season, dropping IWU to 5-1 and 0-1 in the league.
 
"Exciting basketball game in a fun environment," said head coach Bosko Djurickovic after the win.  "On the defensive end, our attention to detail was spot on. They were averaging 12 made 3's per game and we held them to 7-25 at 28%. Brady Rose is one of the best players in the country.  He's a lights out shooter and his first step quickness is hard to stop. I'm proud of our guys for battling for 40 minutes tonight.  We need a couple good days of practice to get ready for North Park on Wednesday."
 
The Red Men shot 47.5% in the win and connected on 7-22 threes, with six coming in the first half, while Brad Kruse and Jordan Thomas each went 7-14 from the field with 20 and 16 points respectively to lead the Red Men.  Kruse added ten rebounds to record his first double-double of the season.
 
Carthage put up their second-best shooting first half of the season against the Titans, going 15-31 for 48.4% to build a 39-34 lead heading into the break.  Brad Kruse and Derek Mason combined for 24 of the Red Men's 39 points, as Kruse went 5-8 in the half and 3-3 from three for 13 points and Mason connected on 4-5 field goals and 2-3 from deep for 11 points.
 
The Titans came out of the halftime break hot, as Illinois Wesleyan used a 14-6 run in the opening 4:16 to take a 48-45 lead.  Carthage weathered the opening blow of the half and used a 7-0 run to regain a lead that the Red Men would hold on to that until 4:53 remained in the game. 
 
With the lead exchanging hands multiple times down the stretch, the Red Men found themselves down three, 70-67, with 1:58 remaining.  Jordan Thomas drew the Red Men within one with a jumper and four-straight points from Kruse put the Red Men up three, 73-70, with 22 seconds remaining. 
 
After the Titans pulled back to within one, Steve Leazer hit one-of-two free throws to put the Red Men up two with seven seconds left and a three at the buzzer from the Titans' Brady Rose fell short, giving the Red Men the two-point win.
 
Mason finished with 13 points and Brad Perry joined in double-figures with 11 points on 5-9 shooting.
 
The Red Men will return to Carthage for their first home CCIW game of the season on Wednesday, December 6^th, when the Red Men playing host to North Park University at 7:00 p.m.