WAUKESHA, Wis. –  The Carthage College men's basketball team dropped a contest for the second time in the last three games, Wednesday night on the road, falling to the Pioneers of Carroll University, 73-69.
 
The loss sends the Red Men to 12-9 overall and to 7-5 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, while the Pioneers move to 9-12 with their fourth straight win and to 5-7 in the CCIW.
 
"Very disappointed with the outcome of tonight's game," said head coach Bosko Djurickovic following the loss.  "I thought the way we played in the first half was much better in the second, but also think we deserved to be ahead by more than six at the half and they made us pay for that.  Give them credit, they made the correct adjustments in the second half and once we fell behind we were never able to get things back in our favor."
 
Carthage built a six-point halftime lead behind 11 points from Jordan Thomas and a 14-4 run to open the game and take an early ten-point lead.  Carthage maintained the lead for the entire half but saw the Pioneers cut the deficit to one with 4:38 remaining in the first half.  The Red Men regained their composure however, and an 11-2 run, capped with a three by Steve Leazer, to put Carthage up 34-24 in the final minute until four late points by Carroll.
 
The second half belonged to the Pioneers as Carroll shot 61.9% from the field, connecting on 13-21 attempts, and hit three of their six threes, while limiting Carthage 37.9% over the final 20 minutes and forcing Carthage into eight turnovers, giving them 16 for the game.
 
The Red Men had a pair of good three-point looks with just over a minute left, trailing by four, but neither fell and Carroll was able to extend their lead at the free throw line to six, 65-59.   With Carroll holding their lead through free throws, the Red Men would never be able to overcome the late Pioneers' surge, as Carroll finished the final 7:13 6-8 from the field and 13-15 from the line to secure the win.
 
Jordan Thomas followed up his 40-point performance from the weekend by leading the Red Men in scoring on Wednesday with a game-high 21 points.  Kienan Baltimore next with 14 second half points to give him 17 in the game and Brad Perry finished with 12 points and nine rebounds in the defeat.
 
Carroll had four players in double figures, with Joel Heesch and Tyler Ingebrightsen each with 20 points.
 
The Red Men will return to action for their second of three straight on the road this Saturday, as Carthage visits Elmhurst College on Saturday.  The Red Men will be part of a basketball doubleheader with the women tipping at 2:00 p.m. and the men at 4:00 p.m.
"In terms of the conference tournament, we did not help ourselves tonight.  We have two more big road games coming up so we will get back to work tomorrow."