ELMHURST – The Carthage College men's basketball team secured a hard-fought 75-71 win over Elmhurst on Wednesday night at R.A. Faganel Hall.

• Final Score: Carthage 75 - Elmhurst 71
• Location: Elmhurst, Illinois - R.A. Faganel Hall.
• Records: Carthage 9-4 (3-1 CCIW), Elmhurst 6-8 (2-3 CCIW)

• Elmhurst opened the game with a 14-2 lead.
• Carthage trimmed the deficit to five points after a three-pointer and a free throw from Colton Sigel.
• Ryan Johnson later tied the game at 32 with a three-pointer at the 2:10 mark of the first half.
• Two free throws by Ryan Johnson gave Carthage the lead, but Elmhurst answered with two free throws of their own, leaving the Firebirds up 36-34 at halftime.
• In the second half, Carthage extended its lead to eight after Griffin Daun hit a pair of free throws, followed by a three-pointer from AJ Williams to make it 50-39.
• Elmhurst mounted a 23-6 run, taking a 62-56 lead with six minutes left.
• The Firebirds fought back, cutting the deficit to 67-64 on Ryan Johnson's free throws.
• Ryan Johnson scored back-to-back layups to give Carthage a one-point advantage with 34 seconds remaining.
• Elmhurst stayed close with a free throw, narrowing the gap to one point with 10 seconds left, but AJ Johnson sank two clutch free throws to push the lead to three.
• The Bluejays responded with two free throws with six seconds remaining, but AJ Johnson made another pair of free throws to maintain the lead.
• Elmhurst added one more free throw with two seconds left, but AJ Williams sealed the game with two final free throws, securing a 75-71 victory for Carthage.

• Ryan and AJ Johnson led Carthage with 23 and 21 points respectively. The pair each went 10-for-10 from the free throw line while Ryan Johnson grabbed his fourth double-double of the year collecting 13 rebounds. 
• The Johnson brothers tied the fourth-best free-throw percentage in a single game in the Carthage record books. A record last done by then-student-athlete Steve Djurickovic on January 29, 2011. 
• Griffin Daun chipped in with 11 points and five rebounds while Coldont Sigel added 10 points. 
• As a team, the Firebirds shot 26-for-27 from the free throw line, going a perfect 17-for-17 in the second half. 

"Tonight was your traditional CCIW game and proud of our guys for battling for 40 minutes on the road! Our stretch to start the 2nd half was some of our best basketball of the year! Elmhurst has two elite scorers in Tagen Pearson and Dominic Trelenberg and we challenged AJ Williams and Griffin Daun the past three days and they really stepped up to the challenge! 

The Johnson brothers were both special tonight! They combined to go 20-20 at the free throw line, including some huge ones late in the 2nd half. AJ kept us in the game when Elmhurst made their run and Ryan made a huge play with under 40 seconds left to finish the and one to give us a two-point lead. 

Big game Saturday at Tarble against an experienced Millikin team that is also 3-1 in the league!" 

• Carthage returns home to face Millikin on Saturday, January 11 at 4:15 p.m.