MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The Carthage College men's basketball team picked up their eighth-straight win Tuesday night, defeating New England College to start the Cruzin' Classic Tournament in Florida. 

• Final score: Carthage 98 - New England 78
• Location: Miami Gardens, Florida - Fernandez Family Center
• Records: Carthage (8-1) - New England (2-9)

 
 

• The Pilgrams went up one early with a layup until back-to-back Firebird layups from AJ Johnson and Colton Sigel flipped the score to 13-10. 
• With 11:09 left in the half, Julian Campbell connected on a layup putting Carthage in front 24-15. 
• A steal from Sigel led to an Anthony Bernero layup, then on the next possession another steal by Joey Jendusa saw Bernero score another layup extending the Carthage lead to 11. 
• Following New England nailing a long range bucket, Carthage answered with a three pointer from Sigel. 
• Two-consecutive layups from Campbell extended the advantage to 15 with 3:15 remaining. 
• Carthage held a 49-40 margin heading into the locker rooms. 
• The Firebirds blew the game open with a 14-5 run to start the second half. 
• Later, long range field goals from Sigel and Johnson made it 76-55. 
• A dunk from Antuan Nesbitt, a three-pointer from Johnson and free throws from Mac Parmelee gave the Firebirds a 96-70 score as Carthage cruised to the 98-78 victory. 

 

• Sophomore guard AJ Johnson registered a new career-best finishing the contest with 28 points, shooting 11-15 from the floor and 6-10 from long range. It marks the fourth time this season Johnson scored over 20 points in a game. 
• Fillip Bulatovic poured in 20 points and nine rebounds, followed by Colton Sigel with 17. 
• Bulatovic and Antuan Nesbitt each dished out a team-best six assists; Nesbitt and Bernero tallied five rebounds. 
• Anthony Bernero and Julian Campbell added 10 points apiece.
• Joey Jendusa added four assists, while Lukas Rekasius grabbed three rebounds.
• Griffin Daun blocked two shots for the Firebirds on the day.  
• The firebird offense shot 22 of 32 from the floor in the first half, finishing 60% for the whole contest. 

"Happy to start off our trip with a win! We did a nice job of sharing the basketball and getting good looks off dribble penetration. They were a difficult team for us to guard off the dribble. They played one player over 6'3 and were a completely different style compared to our past few conference games. The second half we did a much better job of keeping them out of the paint, and the stops helped us get into transition. Any time you can shoot it over 60% from the floor and have 23 assists, it's a good day.

AJ Johnson was terrific again today but got two quick fouls that limited his minutes in the first half, but he was super efficient in the second half and didn't turn the ball over. 

We need to be much more organized on the defensive end of the floor tomorrow against a really good UMass Dartmouth team that went to the Sweet 16 last year." 

 

• Up next, Carthage takes on UMass Dartmouth on Wednesday, December 21 at 7 p.m. CT before heading home for the holiday break.