KENOSHA, Wis. – The Carthage College Red Men saw their four-game winning streak come to an end Saturday on a rough night for Carthage basketball, as the men's basketball team fell to Illinois Wesleyan University at Tarble, 90-78.
The loss drops Carthage to 15-7 on the season and to 8-5 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, while the Titans improved to 16-6 and 8-5 in the CCIW.
"If you would have said on October 15th we would be 15-7 and 8-5 in the league and in control of our own destiny to get in the conference tournament and maybe go on after that, we would have asked where to sign up," said head coach
Bosko Djurickovic following the loss. "That said, you cannot live on the edge the way we have recently and expect good things to happen just because. Tonight, we did not play very well. I could have coached a better game. We certainly could have executed a better game. The team that played with more offensive intensity was the winner of the game. We never could get a handle of them on the defensive end, after statistically, being the best team in our league when it comes to field goal percentage, defensive numbers, metrics, etc. Tonight that wasn't the case. We won the rebounding battle by two, limited them to six threes made when they average 9.5 and yet they shot 55-percent and you can't win against a good team like that."
Mike Stevenson scored a game-high for the Red Men with 27 points on 9-17 from the field and 7-7 from the free throw line.
Kienan Baltimore added 17 points before fouling out late and Joiner added 11.
An exciting first half saw both the Red Men and Titans shoot over 50-percent, with Illinois Wesleyan edging out Carthage from the field 56.3% to 55.2%. However the Red Men led at the half, 43-42, courtesy of a
Kienan Baltimore reverse layup with three second left in the half on an assist from Kozil.
Baltimore finished the half with nine points on 4-7 shooting from the field and 1-1 from three, while
Mike Stevenson led the Red Men with a game-high 15 at the break on 6-9 shooting from the floor.
Drew Joiner also had a strong first half with seven points in eleven minutes and hitting all three shots he took.
In the second half Carthage took a two-point lead at the 18:48 mark following a pair of layups by
Brad Perry and
Brad Kruse to give the Red Men a 47-45 lead.
However a Brady Rose and-one for the Titans put them back on top and they would never look back. Illinois Wesleyan would stretch their lead to as many as 11 before four Baltimore free throws and a
Mike Stevenson three got the Red Men back within six at 76-70 with 3:14 remaining.
The comeback was short-live though as a pair of Titan threes pushed Illinois Wesleyan to their largest lead of the night, 14, before walking out of Tarble with the win.
All five starters for the Titans scored in double-figures, led by Brady Rose, with 17 of his 25 coming in the second half.
With three games remaining and the Red Men still in contention for the CCIW Tournament, Carthage will turn their focus to North Central College, as the Cardinals come to Kenosha on Wednesday for a huge game at 7:00 p.m.
Looking ahead Djurickovic said, "We need to bounce back a little bit. I wasn't particularly happy with the general execution in the second half. We need to go back to practice a little bit differently. Now we have to prepare for a very hot and good North Central team that comes here on Wednesday."
