DECATUR, Ill. – The Carthage College Red Men punched their ticket into the 2017 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Men's Basketball Tournament on Saturday with their largest margin of victory win of the season at Millikin University on Saturday night, 99-66.
 
The Red Men, now 17-7 on the season and 10-5 in the CCIW, earned their berth via tonight's win and Carroll University's earlier win on the day over Wheaton College.  The loss drops Millikin to 3-21 and 1-14 in the CCIW.
 
"An exciting road win that guarantees us a place in the conference tournament next weekend," said head coach Bosko Djurickovic after the win.  "That was the goal from the beginning of the season and now we need to look forward to the next week of basketball.  Wheaton on Tuesday night is a big game for a number of reasons. Then the weekend will take care of itself.  Credit to all of the guys for an outstanding 40 minute effort.  Big shout out to seniors Mike Kjeldsen, Ryan Kase and Mike Steventon for leading the way."

The postseason berth is the first for the Red Men since the 2013-14 season when Carthage last qualified for the CCIW Tournament.

Additionally, the Red Men's hope of hosting the 2017 CCIW Tournament stayed alive with a win in overtime by North Park over Augustana.  The Red Men will need to win on Tuesday and couple that with an Illinois Wesleyan win over Augustana to earn the right to host.
 
Four Red Men scored in double figures on the night with Mike Stevenson leading all scorers with 20 points on 7-10 shooting.  Joining Stevenson were Mike Kjeldsen with 16, Jordan Thomas with 11 and Kienan Baltimore with ten.  Baltimore also added a game-high six assists and Brad Perry grabbed eight rebounds.
 
 After taking an early 5-0 lead, the Red Men built on that as they took a 20-4 lead with 12:11 remaining in the first half.  As a team, the Red Men opened 8-11 from the field with eight points coming from Mike Stevenson during the run.
 
The hot shooting continued for Carthage in the half, as the Red Men hit 13 of their first 17 shots from the field and went 5-7 from three to build a 22-point lead with just over nine minutes left in the first half, 33-11.
 
Carthage eventually built their lead to as many as 23 in the first half before a late run by Millikin sent Carthage to the locker room up 43-26.
 
The Red Men shot a blister 57.1% from the field in the first half and went 5-11 from three point range, led by Mike Stevenson's 12 points in the half.
 
Millikin flashed a comeback in the second half as they cut the lead to just 13, 48-35,  but the Red Men quickly restored their dominant lead back to 20 multiple times behind Kienan Baltimore and Mike Kjeldsen threes.
 
From there it was all Red Men down the stretch over the final ten minutes, as Carthage prevailed with the win.
 
The Red Men finished shooting 60.0% from the field and 48.4% from three in Carthage's best shooting performance of the season.
 
Carthage returns to Tarble on Tuesday night for their final game of the regular season against Wheaton College at 7:00 p.m.  Prior to the game the Red Men will honor Mike Kjeldsen, Andy Buhrow, Kevin Kozil, Ryan Kase and Mike Stevenson as part of the Senior Night festivities.