ELMHURST, Ill. - The Elmhurst College men's basketball team could not overcome a hot-shooting Carthage College, falling to the Red Men 73-63 at R.A. Faganel Hall.
After falling behind by nine points in the opening half, Elmhurst (6-8, 1-2 CCIW) battled back to open up a 27-22 lead over Carthage (9-5, 2-1 CCIW). The Red Men evened the score at 35-all with less than a minute to play in the half, and Pace Bennett's lay-up in the closing seconds gave Carthage a 37-35 lead at halftime.
Carthage quickly opened up an 11-point cushion midway through the second half thanks to red-hot shooting from beyond the arc. Elmhurst managed to trim the lead down six points with 6:45 to play, but back-to-back treys from Carthage helped the Red Men open up a 12-point advantage and pull away from the Bluejays. The Red Men hit their first seven three-point attempts of the second half.
Elmhurst shot 37.5 percent (24-of-64) from the field, including 22.2 percent (4-of-18) from downtown. The Bluejays had a slight 35-31 edge in rebounding.
Steve Crane had a breakout performance for the Bluejays. The junior center scored a season-high and team-leading 20 points and pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds to record his first double-double of the season. Crane shot 8-of-11 from the floor and pulled down nine offensive rebounds in the loss. James Robertson added 12 points, all in the first half for the Bluejays. Zack Boyd pitched in with 11 and Mike McCurdy scored nine for the Bluejays.
Carthage finished the contest shooting 54.3 percent from the floor (25-of-46), including 59.1 percent (13-of-22) in the second half. The Red Men shot 55.0 percent from downtown (11-of-20), including 77.8 percent (7-of-9) in the game's final 20 minutes.
Steve Djurickovic led Carthage and all scorers with 27 points. He added six assists in the victory while shooting 9-of-17 from the field. Malcom Kelly added 25 points and Mitch Thompson totaled nine points and 10 rebounds in the victory.
Elmhurst travels to Illinois Wesleyan University on Saturday, January 15.