The Carthage College men's basketball team (9-7, 2-3 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) hit a road bump on Wednesday, Jan. 19 with a 66-63 loss to CCIW-opponent North Central College (8-8, 4-1 CCIW) at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis. The loss left the Red Men in a three-way tie for fourth place, along with Wheaton College (Ill.) and Elmhurst College.
Carthage inched away to a 13-point lead in the first half, 30-17, at 8:07. Malcom Kelly, who had connected on three three-pointers, left the game with his third personal foul at 7:56, and the Cardinals closed out the period on a 15-4 run to close the gap to two points at halftime, 34-32. The Red Men went back up by eight points in the second half, 47-39, at 12:52. An 11-0 North Central run gave the Cardinals a three-point lead, 50-47, at 9:15. North Central led by as much as five points on three occasions, the last at 60-55 at 2:35.
A Steve Djurickovic layup at 1:41 made it 60-57. The Cardinals' Derek Raridon made the second of a two-shot free throw at 1:31 to up the lead to four points, 61-57. Tyler Pierce answered with a layup at 1:09 to shave the margin to a pair, 61-59, but Malcom Kelly missed the front end of a one-and-one with 53 seconds to go. North Central's Kevin Gillespie made the front end of a two-shot foul at 49 seconds to make it a 62-59 game. Pierce connected on another layup at 41 seconds, and the score was 62-61. C.J. Goldthree hit a pair of free throws with 28 seconds to play to make it 64-61. Kelly scored on a layup at 16 seconds, was fouled, but missed the free throw, and North Central led by one, 64-63. Kevin Gillespie connected on two free throws with 14 seconds to go to close out the scoring at 66-63. Kelly missed a wild three-point attempt with two seconds on the clock that would have tied the game.
North Central shot 42 percent (23-55), while Carthage shot 49 percent (22-45), including eight-of-22 from three-point range The Cardinals had a whopping, 41-22 rebounding advantage, edge, including 17 offensive boards to just four for the Red Men. Derek Raridon scored a game-high 21 points for the Cardinals on eight-of-14 field goals. Kevin Gillespie had 12 points and a game-high 14 rebounds, including nine offensive boards, and C.J. Goldthree came off the bench to add 11 points and five rebounds.
Tyler Pierce (So., Westmont, Ill.) led Carthage with 20 points on seven-of-nine field goals. Malcom Kelly (So., Kenosha, Wis./Reuther) had 16 points on six-of-15 shooting, including four-of-11 from three-point range. Steve Djurickovic (Sr., Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kenosha-Bradford) was limited to 10 points with four rebounds and eight assists. Raul Guzman (So., Lyons, Ill./Berwyn-Morton West) came off the bench to play nine minutes after missing three games with back spasms, while Max Cary (Jr., Geneva, Ill.) missed his third-consecutive game with a strained shoulder.
"Close but not good enough has become a way-too-familiar refrain," said Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic. "Good teams win games like these. We've now lost four home games, and we've put ourselves in a very difficult position in the CCIW. North Central plays with nice energy, and we didn't play particularly well. We looked like we had never seen a zone defense in our lives. Malcom Kelly's third foul really hurt us, as well. Steve Djurickovic wasn't very alive tonight, and we seemed to be chasing shots. They really out-rebounded us, 41-22. Brian Evens is a warrior for them. He's a winner, and he really gets the job done. We're finding a way to be short, and given the expectations going into the season, that's disappointing. There was a lot of talk in the summer about how good this team might be—it's not going to happen."
On Saturday, Jan. 22, the Red Men travel to Decatur, Ill., to take on conference-opponent Millikin University (1-14, 0-5 CCIW) in a 4:30 p.m. contest at the Griswold Center.