The Carthage College men's basketball team (1-1, 0-0 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin) loss to the University of St. Francis (Ill., 3-1), 70-57, on Friday, Nov. 21 in the first round of the Carthage Classic I at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.  Aurora University (2-0) edged Wisconsin-La Crosse (0-2), 70-68, in the other first-round game.  Carthage will meet UW-La Crosse in Saturday's consolation game at 4 p.m., followed by St. Francis (Ill.) against Aurora in 6 p.m. title game.

Carthage fell behind by 18 points late in the first half, 39-21, with 13 seconds to go.  The Fighting Saints led by 16 at the break, 39-23.  The lead went to 20 points, 43-23, at 16:12 second period, and the Red Men never got any closer than 11 points the rest of the way.  St. Francis (ill.) went on to win by 13 points, 70-57.

St. Francis (Ill.) shot 39 percent (24-61), including six-of-20 three-pointers, while Carthage shot just 36 percent (20-55), including five-of-17 from three-point range.  The Fighting Saints connected on 16-of-18 free throws, while the Red Men converted 12-of-14.  St. Francis won the rebounding battle, 45-29. 

Edvinas Presniakovas led the Fighting Saints with 17 points on seven-of-15 field goals.  Reese Herth (Sr., Morton Grove, Ill./Skokie-Niles West) led the Red Men with 18 points on four-of-13 shooting and eight-of-eight free throws, while Cameron Van Wyk (Sr., Wassenaar, Netherlands) had 12 points and six rebounds.

"We didn't compete on the boards against a good St. Francis team," admitted coach Bosko Djurickovic.  "Give them credit.  They have a nice team with good players at each position.  The first half was very disappointing, and we just weren't ready to compete.   They wore us out and played at a nice pace all the way through.  After eight minutes, the game was never really in doubt.  They had control of the game, even if we executed better in the second half."