WHEATON, Ill.  — The Carthage College men's basketball team College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) Tournament hopes came to an end on Friday night as the team fell to the No. 2 seed North Park 82-62. 

• Final score: North Park 82 - Carthage 62 
• Location: Wheaton, Illinois - King Arena
• Records: North Park 21-5, Carthage 18-9

 

• North Park began the contest with a 12-7 margin with a fastbreak layup. 
• Carthage tied it at 12 with a three-point bucket from AJ Johnson following the first media timeout.  
• The Vikings put together a 9-2 run extending their advantage to 30-20 with three minutes remaining in the half.  
• Carthage headed into the intermission trailing 33-23. 
• A Julian Campbell dunk got the Firebirds going in the second half; however, North Park retaliated with a 9-0 run extending their lead to 18. 
• Fillip Bulatovic added a layup at the 16:25 mark, which made it 45-31. 
• Back-to-back threes from Johnson and Tanner Lamb shrank the deficit to 13. 
• Antuan Nesbitt connected on a three making it a 55-42 score. 
• Later, Bulatovic sank a quick layup narrowing the gap back to 13 with 6:13 remaining. 
• Another layup from Bulatovic made it 79-60, but North Park went on to win 82-62. 

• AJ Johnson finished with a game-high and team-best 24 points, the eighth-straight game Johnson scored in double-figures. 
• Sophomore Antuan Nesbitt added 14 points and seven rebounds. 
• Fillip Bulatovic registered 10 points and seven rebounds, while Julian Campbell and Anthony Bernero each grabbed five rebounds. 

 

"It was a tough way to finish a great season. North Park challenges you in so many different ways with their constant pressure and physicality. I think tonight was the first time in a while that our youth showed, and the older and more experienced team won. 

This group has battled so much this season to allow ourselves to play in a game of this magnitude. We were picked 8th in our preseason conference poll and finished in 3rd place. There were so many great moments, including a 10-game win streak in the middle of the season. 

We will miss our seniors of Fillip Bulatovic, Luke Barach, Lukas Rekasius and Nick Wolf. They've been leaders and have helped mentor the team's younger guys. 

We have a very important offseason ahead of us in so many ways. We took a big step forward this year as a program and are excited to see how the guys challenge themselves in the next few months to prepare for next year!"