The Carthage College men's basketball team (6-3, 0-0 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked 19th in the Dec. 7 "D3hoops.com" poll, lost to Albion College (3-3), 93-88 in overtime, on Saturday afternoon, Dec. 11, at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.
Albion opened up an 13-point lead in the first half, 33-20, at 6:10. Carthage erased that edge with a 16-5 run to close out the half. The Britons led by two points at the break, 38-36. The Red Men took a six-point lead early in the second half, 50-44, at 14:08, but an 18-6 Albion run gave the Britons an eight-point edge, 62-54, at 9:51. Albion extended its lead to nine points on two occasions, the last at 67-58 at 8:17. The Red Men used a 14-4 run to take a one-point lead, 72-71, at 3:07. The Britons made it 74-72 at 1:16, but a pair of free throws by Steve Djurickovic sent the game in overtime tied at 74 each. The Red Men's Jon Cieski missed what would have been a game-winning three-pointer at the end of regulation.
In overtime, the Red Men's last lead was 82-81 at 2:14, and the game was tied, for the eighth time, 84-84, at 1:01. A three-pointer by Albion's Chris Hutton, followed by two Hutton free throws, put the Britons up by five, 89-84, with 26 seconds to play. Carthage pulled to within three, 91-88, when Malcom Kelly drained a three-pointer with five seconds to go, but Hutton connected on a two free throws with three seconds on the clock to close out the scoring at 93-88.
Albion shot 55 percent (34-62), while Carthage shot 48 percent (31-64). The Red Men were out-rebounded by the Britons, 44-29. Albion's J.C Cruse scored 33 points on 12-of-22 field goals and nine-of-13 free throws, along with nine rebounds. Kolin Kazen had 20 points and seven boards. and Hutton came off the bench to score 15 points with four assists. Steve Djurickovic (Sr., Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kenosha-Bradford) had a game-high 40 points, his second career game with 40 or more points, on 11-of-22 shooting and 15-of-16 free throws, along with six assists. Malcom Kelly (So., Kenosha, Wis./Reuther) scored 24 points on 10-of-16 field goals, along with seven boards, and Tyler Pierce (So., Westmont, Ill.) added 12 points.
"We certainly didn't play very well, said Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic. "We didn't compete well, but we still had opportunities to win. We missed three of our first four shots in overtime, and we were chasing them. Defensively, we are bad. If you can't play defense and can't rebound, things are going to go wrong. Albion targeted our players, which is a pattern that started with John Carroll and Whitworth. The word is we're soft, and you can take it to us one-on-one. We had no answer for J.C. Cruse with 33 points and no answer for their 19 offensive rebounds. We got what we deserved. Right now, we're not playing correctly enough to be a championship-caliber team. We're a lot of talk and not enough action right now, and that's my responsibility. We could end up being a 15-10 team, but that's not my goal."
On Sunday, Dec. 12, Carthage closes out its December-schedule by playing host to Cardinal Stritch University (6-4) in a 4 p.m. contest, also at Tarble Arena.