KENOSHA, Wis. - The Carthage College Red Men gave #4 Augustana College all they could handle Saturday night at Tarble Arena in a highly contested game in front of a great crowd, but the Vikings escaped with a 70-61 win.

The loss drops the Red Men to 5-3 on the year and to 2-1 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, while the Vikings move to 6-1 and 2-0 in the CCIW.

"Tonight's game speaks volumes about Augustana," said head coach Bosko Djurickovic after the game.  "They play in these games all the time, they are used to winning these games and they usually find a play or two that puts them over the top, and that's what happened tonight.  You can point to the free throws, we missed 11, they missed three.  You can point to the fact they out rebounded us the last ten minutes of the game.  But I give them credit for making big plays when they had to.  Unfortunately, we just didn't make the big plays when we needed to down the stretch.  I am not discouraged, even a little bit, we have a chance to have a great season.  We are going to be tough every single night and just need to play better against the best team."

Jordan Thomas led all scorers in the win with 19 points on 7-17 shooting.  

The first half saw a defensive battle with each team committing nine turnovers and holding each other to near identical shooting performances, with the Red Men shooting 42.9% on 12-28 and the Vikings shooting 42.3% on 11-26 field goals, giving Carthage a 30-26 halftime lead.  

Brad Perry led the Red Men with nine points on 4-5 shooting in the half as he found success early in the paint, however foul trouble limited him to just ten minutes in the half.  Brad Kruse and Jordan Thomas also knocked in six points each and Derek Mason offered a defensive spark off the bench with three steals.

After extending the lead to six out of the halftime break, 34-28, the Vikings made their run, outscoring the Red Men 11-1 over a 4:52 span to give Augustana a 39-35 lead.  

The Red Men would battle from behind the rest of the way and struggles at the free throw line were costly.  The Red Men went 11-18 in the second half and were 15-26 for the game from the stripe.  

The Red Men kept the game within two possessions for most of the half, thanks in large part to Thomas, who had 13 of his 19 points in the second half.  Unfortunately for the Red Men, after cutting the deficit to four at 63-59 with :53 remaining, the Vikings hit their free throws to escape with the win.

Brad Perry finished with 13 points in the game and Derek Mason added 11 points and finished with four steals to lead all players defensively.  Kamal Shasi had another strong night, leading the Red Men in rebounds and assists with nine and four respectively.

The Red Men will get a week off before returning to action next, as Carthage will travel to Grand Rapids, Michigan for a showdown with Calvin College before heading to Miami.  Tip-off next Saturday is slated for 5:00 p.m. ET.