ELMHURST, Ill. – The Carthage College Red Men dropped their second straight game on Saturday evening, falling on the road at Elmhurst College, 70-64.
 
The loss sends Carthage to 12-10 on the season and to 7-6 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, while Elmhurst improves to 12-11 and 5-9 in the league.
 
Carthage was led in the loss by Kienan Baltimore with a game-high 21 points on 6-16 shooting, 3-6 from three and 6-6 at the free throw line.  Behind Baltimore were Brad Kruse and Jordan Thomas with ten points each.  Brad Perry led Carthage with eight rebounds.
 
After taking an early lead to open the game, the Red Men struggled to keep up with the Elmhurst offense, as the Bluejays opened up a 14-point lead with 8:21 left in the first half, 22-8.  Carthage eventually found their shooting touch, scoring 22 points over the final eight minutes of the opening period, but still found themselves heading into the halftime break down ten, 40-30.
 
Kienan Baltimore was a spark for the Red Men in the second half with 14 of his points coming in the second half.  However, after getting the lead down to five, 49-44, with 12:20 remaining, Elmhurst pushed to extend the lead back to double-digits where it would hover for much of the remainder of the game.  Carthage did manage to cut the deficit to six in the final minute, however ran out of time down the stretch.
 
As a team the Red Men shot 38.9% from the field to the Bluejays' 40.4%, but outshot Elmhurst from three 38.9%-30.4% and 88.2%-81.0% from the stripe.  However Carthage was outrebounded by 13 on the boards and outscored off the bench 38-8.
 
With three games in the regular season remaining, the Red Men's postseason hopes begin with a must-win on Wednesday, February 14th at Wheaton College.  Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m.