KENOSHA, Wis. – The Carthage College Red Men got their first win of the 2018-19 campaign on Friday night, opening the 2018 Carthage College Classic with a win over North Central University of Minnesota, 78-51.
The win improves the Red Men to .500 on the young season at 1-1, while the Rams fall to 1-2 on the year.
"Good solid effort from our guys tonight," said head coach
Bosko Djurickovic after the win. "The guys did a good job at practice this week, getting themselves prepared to take a step forward. I think we were all disappointed in our performance against Lake Forest, not because Lake Forest is not a good team, they are an excellent team, but because we didn't play consistently enough to give ourselves a chance to win the game. Tonight I was quite pleased because we were able to get ahead early, maintain and played with a good solid pace the whole night."
The Red Men led wire to wire on Friday evening at Tarble Arena, despite a marginal shooting first half that the Red Men were 14-32 from the field and just 3-15 from three. However, the Red Men found their shooting stroke in the second half, going 16-30 from the field for 53.3% and 6-14 from three, eventually pushing the lead to as much as 30 points late in the half. The Red Men also owned the paint, with a 30-12 advantage inside and 15-2 edge in the fast break
Five Red Men scored in double figures for Carthage in the win with a pair of them turning in double-doubles.
Kienan Baltimore,
Sean Johnson and
Jordon Kedrowski led the Red Men with 12 points each followed by
Preston Laketa with 11 and Jacob Polgalse off the bench with ten. Baltimore and Kedrowski recorded the double-doubles for Carthage, as each grabbed 11 rebounds in the win.
Despite finishing with just six rebounds, sophomore center
Sean Johnson was still a force defensively, recording five blocks against the Rams. As a team the Red Men held North Central to 18-61 from the field for 29.5% and 6-25 from three for 24.0%.
The Red Men will return to action on Sunday for the Carthage College Classic finale when they take on Finlandia University at 2:00 p.m.
