The Carthage College men's basketball team (7-5, 0-1 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) opened its CCIW-schedule on Wednesday, Jan. 5 with a 62-55 loss to No. 26 Wheaton College (Ill., 10-2, 1-0 CCIW) at King Arena in Wheaton, Ill. The Red Men led by 14 points in the first half.
Carthage jumped out to a 14-point lead, 24-10, at 6:27 first half after Nick Kladis and Max Cary drained back-to-back three-pointers, and Tyler Pierce scored on two-straight layups. The Red Men led by 11 points at halftime, 29-18. The Thunder came back to knot the score, 33-33, at 14:02, following back-to-back three-pointers by Tyler Peters and Jeremy Pflederer. The Thunder closed the gap with a 10-0 run. Carthage's last lead was 38-37 at 11:14, and the game was tied, 43-43 at 6:59.
With Wheaton leading by one, 46-45, at 5:35, Tim McCrary scored on a layup, and Carthage's Mitch Thompson was whistled for a technical foul. Andrew Jahns made the first two free throws, and McCray sank his, putting the Thunder up by six points, 51-45. A jumper by McCrary at 4:04 gave the Thunder an eight-point lead, 55-47. The Red Men pulled to within four, 57-53, at 1:54 on a layup by Malcom Kelly. Pflederer hit the front end of a one-and-one with 42 seconds to go to make it 58-53.
Carthage's Jon Cieski was fouled on a three-point attempt with 26 seconds to go and made two of his three free throws to cut the lead to three, 58-55. At 14.6 seconds, Pflederer was fouled and completed the one-and-one for a five-point lead, 60-55. Tyler Peters drained two free throws at 4.6 seconds to complete the scoring at 62-55. The Thunder out-scored the Red Men, 44-26, in the second half.
Wheaton shot 47 percent (22-47), including a blistering 63 percent (15-24) in the second half, while Carthage shot just 37 percent (16-43), including 30 percent (6-20) in the second period. The Thunder out-rebounded the Red Men, 33-24. Tim McCrary led Wheaton with a game-high 26 points on 11-of-20 field goals, along with four-of-four free throws, eight rebounds and five assists. Andrew Jahns had 12 points and five rebounds, while Tyler Peters added 11 points.
Steve Djurickovic (Sr., Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kenosha-Bradford) was the lone Carthage player in double figures with 19 points on just four-of-13 shooting, along with 10-of-14 free throws and five assists. On Saturday, Jan. 8, the Red Men play host to No. 18 Illinois Wesleyan University (10-2, 1-0 CCIW) in a 7:30 p.m. contest at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.
"It wasn't just Tim McCrary tonight," said Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic. "Andrew Jahns late in the second half was the killer. We made McCrary shoot the ball. We pick and choose, and all teams do that. He's a really good basketball player, but that was a choice we made. We played really well tonight against a team that's going to be in the race all the way to the end. We just haven't been able to get over the hump. We can't close games out—we were out-scored, 44-26 in the second half. We got out-rebounded again, and Wheaton did a very good defensive job on Steve Djurickovic. I thought our preparation was spot-on. We're getting a little far along in the season to say that things are going to be alright."