WHEATON, Ill. – The Carthage College men's basketball team saw their post season hopes come to an end Wednesday night as the Red Men fell on the road at Wheaton College, 85-77.
 
The loss sends the Red Men to 7-7 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin and to 12-11 overall, while the Thunder improve to 17-6 and 10-4 in the league.
 
"Tough loss in a well played game," said Bosko Djurickovic following the loss. "Thought we had a good game plan to contain Aston Francis and he still got his 30 points. Proud of our guys effort battling hard for 40 minutes. Senior Night against Illinois Wesleyan up next will be a tough test."

Brad Kruse put together one the of the best games by a Red Men player this year, as the senior forward registered 20 points on 9-14 shooting and added a season-high 13 rebounds four his fourth double-double of the season.  Kruse also tied a program record with Joe Higgins from 2007 with seven steals in the loss.  Rounding out his stat line Brad added a team-high five assists and one block.
 
Kienan Baltimore led the Red Men in scoring with 22 points, going 6-13 from the field and adding 9-11 from the free throw line.  Jordan Thomas finished with 13 points to round out the Red Men's top scorers.
 
The Red Men led for the first part of the first half, however Wheaton got hot over the final ten minutes of the opening period to build a ten-point half time lead, 40-30. 
 
It looked as though the Thunder may run away with it in the second half, building a 48-30 lead at the 17:52 mark of the second half, but the Red Men kept battling and following an 8-0 run got the deficit back to ten at 48-38 with 16:25 remaining.  From there, the Thunder would keep the Red Men at bay, having an answer every time the Carthage looked to get the deficit inside of ten, until a three by Kruse and a layup by Baltimore got the Red Men to within six, 73-67, but with 2:21 remaining.  Carthage eventually got the lead down to five, but with the clock working against the Red Men, Wheaton hit their free throws to seal the game.

Kruse and Baltimore combined for 24 points in the second half, scoring 14 and 11 respectively.
 
Wheaton's Ashton Francis led all players in the game with 34 points, including 21 in the second half.
 
As a team the Red Men finished with a better shooting percentage from the field, connecting on 42.6% on 26-61 field goals to Wheaton's 38.2% on 26-68, but the Thunder made seven more three pointers to makeup the difference.
 
The Red Men will return to Tarble Arena for their final home game of the season on Saturday, as Carthage will play host to #23 Illinois Wesleyan University at 7:00 p.m.  Prior to the game, the Red Men will honor Brad Kruse, Kamal Shasi, Derek Mason, Steve Leazer and Jordan Thomas as part of the Senior Day activities.