KENOSHA, Wis. – The Carthage College Red Men saw their 2017 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Tournament come to a heartbreaking end Friday night, as a 23-point comeback was foiled by a North Central College buzzer-beater to send the number-one seeded Red Men to defeat, 87-85.
 
"I think had we gone to overtime the advantage certainly looked to be in our favor," said head basketball coach Bosko Djurickovic.  "They had three guys foul out, we also had two, but there were so many games this way this year.  We have talked about overtime this year and we were successful but we also lost some close games as well.  We didn't play well enough early and gave them all the momentum into the half and then in building a 23-point lead in the second half.  We eventually said let's go battle and got it to the point where we actually had a one-point lead and had every opportunity.  We didn't play the last play very well.  That's my fault.  Could have done it a little different but their man made a heck of a shot that was difficult with people all over him, but it went in.  A very emotional night.  There was a great crowd with great enthusiasm so to not be able to get the job done is very disappointing."
 
The loss drops the Red Men to 18-8 on the season and will now have to wait to learn if they have done enough to make the 2017 NCAA DIII Men's Basketball Championship, while the number-four seed Cardinals improve to 16-10 and will face Augustana at Tarble on Saturday in the CCIW Tourmanent Championship game at 7:00 p.m.
 
Carthage was led by Kienan Baltimore with 16 points off the bench and starters Mike Stevenson, Kevin Kozil and Jordan Thomas all joined in double-figures, with 15, 13 and 11 respectively.
 
The Red Men fell victim to unbelievable shooting in the first half by the Cardinals, as North Central shot 53.3% from the field on 16-30 and 54.5% from deep, connecting on 6-11 threes. 

Trailing by just two with 12:30 remaining in the half, 15-13, The Red Men were outscored 15-5 over over the next six minutes to give North Central their first double-digit lead of the half, 29-18.
 
A Jordan Thomas three quickly cut it back to eight, however another 12-3 run by the Cardinals saw Carthage go into the locker room trailing by 17, 41-24.
 
While North Central was on fire, the Red Men struggled from the field for the half, shooting just 7-25 and 2-10 from deep, while being led by Kevin Kozil with seven at the break.
 
It looked as though the comeback wasn't to be on the night, as North Central pushed the lead to 23, 58-35, with 13:53 remaining in the game. 
 
But just as the Red Men had done so many times over and over on the season, Carthage began to rally behind defense led by Derek Mason.  Mason forced three steals during a 41-17 run by the Red Men over 11:48 to take a one-point lead, 76-75, with 2:05 remaining.  Carthage forced seven turnovers during the stretch, six of which were off Carthage steals, and limited the Cardinals to just 3-13 from the field, while the Red Men heated up, knocking down 11-20 field goals and 18-21 free throws. 
 
During the comeback, Carthage had three individual 7-0 runs to cut the deficit to 13 with 8:45 left, 8 with 6:21 left and to four with 4:04 left.
 
Mason led the Red Men with nine points during the comeback attempt followed by Baltimore with eight, Drew Joiner with seven, Mike Kjeldsen and Stevenson with five, Kozil with four and Thomas with three.
 
"During the final third of the season Derek was outstanding," said Djurickovic on the spark Derek Mason brought off the bench.  "He is a basketball guy.  He is in the gym probably more than anyone on our team.  He has become much more consistent over the past year-and-a-half I have had him.  He really has become very consistent and with a year left he is going to be a fine player.  Defensively he has ratcheted it up and offensively he has always been a good player.
 
Thomas' three during the run were the final three of the comeback, as Thomas stripped Aiden Chang and took it the other way for an and-one layup, which following the free throw put Carthage up for the first time since the 17:24 mark in the first half.
 
North Central quickly responded with a 6-0 run to regain a 81-76 lead.
 
Carthage would battle back once again with a 9-4 run with a layup Stevenson, followed by a three by Baltimore to Mike Stevenson to make it a two-point game with 14 seconds left. 
 
With six seconds left, Alex Sorenson had a chance to seal the game but missed a pair of free throws and following the second as the Red Men brought the ball down, Jagger Anderson fouled Kevin Kozil at midcourt to send him to the line with four-seconds where Kozil hit both to tie.
 
 However on the ensuing possession, Chang drove the length of the court and threw up a floater from the right elbow that beat the buzzer to spoil the Red Men's comeback, 87-85.
 
Anderson led the Cardinals with 21 before fouling out in the final minute, while Sorenson added 16 and Chang and Matt Cappelletti finished with 15. 
 
Carthage will now have to play the waiting game until the NCAA Division III Selection Show takes place Monday, February 27th at 11:30 a.m. to learn if they will receive and at-large berth into the tournament.
 
"I don't know as much about this as I did eight or ten years ago when I was a member of the committee but having gone through this where we got in and weren't sure if we were going to and having not gotten in when we thought we should have, there is just no way to guess.  Now we are at the mercy of conference tournament championships.  We want the favorites to win all of the conference tournaments.  The more number-one champions the better.  If that happens I think we have a pretty good chance."