The Carthage College men's basketball team (10-7, 3-3 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) snapped a two-game losing streak on Saturday afternoon, Jan. 22, with a 64-49 win over CCIW-opponent Millikin University (1-15, 0-6 CCIW) at the Griswold Physical Education Center in Decatur, Ill. For the Big Blue, the loss was their 12th in a row since defeating Illinois-Springfield on Dec. 1.
Carthage opened up a 10-point lead, 24-14, at 8:00, but Millikin narrowed that to four points, 25-21, at 4:42. The Red Men led by five points at halftime, 28-23. A three-pointer by the Big Blue's Kyle Tabor brought Millikin to within three in the second half, 37-34, at 13:08. Carthage took off on a 13-0 run at that point. A three-pointer by Steve Djurickovic at 9:44 capped the run and gave the Red Men a 13-point advantage, 47-34. A Nick Kladis trey at 3:36 and a pair of Djurickovic free throws at 2:46 upped the Carthage margin to 18 points, 60-42. The Red Men went on to win by 15 points, 64-49.
Carthage shot just 39 percent (21-54), including eight-of-29 from three-point range, while Millikin shot 33 percent (20-60), including four-of-14 from three-point range and just 29 percent overall (10-34) in the second period. The Red Men enjoyed a 40-32 rebounding edge. Carthage's Steve Djurickovic (Sr., Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kenosha-Bradford) led all scorers with 21 points on six-of-13 field goals, including five-of-10 from three-point range, along with four-of-four free throws, seven rebounds and six assists.
Tyler Pierce (So., Westmont, Ill.) had 16 points on six-of-eight shooting, while Mitch Thompson (So., Orland Park, Ill./Sandburg) added nine points and a game-high 10 rebounds. Raul Guzman (So., Lyons, Ill./Berwyn-Morton West) missed the game with back spasms, while Max Cary (Jr., Geneva, Ill.) missed his fourth-consecutive game with a strained shoulder. Kyle Taylor led the Big Blue with 16 points and five rebounds.
"Fifteen-point road wins in the CCIW are very valuable things" said Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic. "Could we have played better? Probably, but I was very pleased with our effort. We played with a purpose, and we had some good lifts from different people. Mitch Thompson played one of his better games of the season, Tyler Pierce continues to improve, offensively, and Steve Djurickovic was solid, end to end. Millikin has been playing better, and they feel they're moving forward. If we can rebound this well, we could still win a lot of games, because that takes the pressure off our inside guys. Tyler Pierce is still working himself into game shape, and he's playing better now than he was earlier in the season. Hopefully, that'll give us a boost the rest of the way. Our defensive effort, so far, has been spot-on. It's the offense and the rebounding that has hurt us."
Carthage plays host to conference-opponent North Park University (8-9, 2-4 CCIW) on Wednesday, Jan. 26 in a 7:30 p.m. game at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.