The Carthage College men's basketball team (1-1, 0-0 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) came back from a 17-point first-half deficit to turn the title game of the Nov. 16-17 Carroll University "Johnson Bank Tip-Off Tournament" into a barnburner. The Red Men, holding a 12-point lead with 4:48 to play, were headed for an upset over No. 31 Carroll (Wis., 2-0), but the Pioneers came out on top, 75-74, at Van Male Field House in Waukesha, Wis.
Buena Vista University (1-1) defeated Concordia University (Wis.., 0-2), 76-66, in the consolation game. In first-round action on Friday, Nov. 16, Carthage defeated Buena Vista, 63-56, with Carroll (Wis.) edging Concordia (Wis.), 78-74.
Luke Johnson scored the first four Carthage field goals and five of its first six baskets, but Carroll raced out to a 16-point lead, 33-17 lead at 6:10. The Red Men closed to within eight points, 39-31, just before the half ended, but the Pioneers led by 10 at the break, 41-31. Johnson drained a three-pointer for the first basket of the second half to pull Carthage to within five, 43-48. The Red Men made it a four-point game on two occasions, 44-40, at 15:56 and 50-46 at 12:55. Carthage made it a one-point game, 55-54, at 10:50 on a three-pointer by Reese Herth and then took the lead, 57-55, on a three by Kevin Sykes Jr. at 9:38.
The Red Men built a 12-point lead, 68-56, at 4:48 before Carroll came roaring back. Leading by four, 74-70, Carthage turned the ball over with 1:04 to go. The Pioneers pulled to within two, 74-72, with 54.7 seconds left on a reverse layup by Jake Bast. With 19 seconds remaining, the Red Men turned the ball over again, this time on a shot-clock violation. Carroll took the lead with 12.7 seconds on the clock on a layup by Rudy Bentley, who was fouled on the play by Luke Johnson. Bentley completed the three-point play for the final, 75-74 margin. Reese Herth launched a long three-pointer at the buzzer that missed.
Carroll shot 51 percent (27-53), including 60 percent in the first half (15-25), while Carthage shot 52 percent (26-of-50), including a blistering 62 percent in the second half (13-21). The Red Men connected on 11-of-24 three-pointers, while the Pioneers hit on six-of-17 from three-point range. Carthage had a narrow, 28-26 rebounding advantage but turned the ball over 17 times to 12 for Carroll.
Carthage's Luke Johnson (So., Naperville, Ill./West Chicago-Wheaton Academy) scored a game-high 21 points on eight-of-11 field goals, including two-of-three three-pointers, along with three-of-three free throws and three blocked shots. Kevin Sykes Jr. (Jr., Tinley Park, Ill./Frankfort—Lincoln-Way North) scored 14 points off the bench on five-of-seven shooting, including four-of-six threes. Reese Herth (So., Morton Grove, Ill./Skokie-Niles West) added 12 points, and Donte Logan (So., Evanston, Ill./Skokie-Niles West) nine points and six assists. Jake Bast topped the Pioneers with 15 points. Rudy Bentley had 13 points, Andrew Rumler 11, and Alex Molter added 10 points and five rebounds.
"I hate to lose," said Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic. "Losing a 12-point lead with five minutes to go is just an unacceptable brand of basketball. We played great for the better part of 30 minutes, and I like this team. But, there is no excuse for making the kind of mistakes we made at the end of a game. That part is on me, if we have the wrong people on the court down the stretch or the wrong distribution. This won't happen again, and we need to do a better job of closing games and a better job of making decisions. I've never had a moral victory in my life. This couldn't be more disappointing. When you put so much into a game, it has to matter. This is tough, especially with a short turnaround against a very good Lake Forest team on Tuesday. We did have some good performances in this game, but we also had three situations where a guy didn't know how much time was left on the shot clock."