The Carthage College men's basketball team (11-8, 4-4 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) lost an epic battle to CCIW-opponent and No. 20 Illinois Wesleyan University (14-5, 5-3 CCIW), 103-94 in double-overtime, on Saturday night, Jan. 29 at the Shirk Center in Bloomington, Ill.
The loss, combined with Wheaton's loss on Saturday to North Central College, left the Red Men in a tie for fourth place in the CCIW with Wheaton (Ill.). The game opened a difficult stretch in the Carthage schedule, with the Red Men playing three of the league's top-four teams over the course of eight days. Carthage plays host to Wheaton College (Ill.) on Wednesday, Feb. 2 before traveling to Augustana College (Ill.) next Saturday, Feb. 5.
Illinois Wesleyan opened up a six-point lead, 15-9, at 12:43, and the Titans had another six-point margin, 24-18, at 7:36. A three-pointer by John Koschnitzky at 2:23 made it an eight-point game, 37-29, and two Jordan Zimmer free throws at 1:17 made it a 10-point game, 41-31. Illinois Wesleyan opened the second period with an 13-3 run to make it an 18-point game, 54-36, at 15:51. The Red Men whittled the lead down to nine points, 58-47, at 12:12 and again, 73-64, at 4:06.
Just when it seemed that Illinois Wesleyan had things well in hand, Carthage got back into the game. Malcom Kelly hit a baseline jumper and a free throw at 3:10 to cut the lead to six, 73-67. At 2:35, Jon Cieski connected on two free throws, and the lead was just four points, 73-69. John Koschnitzky made two free throws at 2:12, and IWU led by six, 75-69. Steve Djurickovic answered with a jumper at 2:01 to bring it back to four points, 75-71. Doug Sexauer made the back end of a two-shot foul at 1:46 to put IWU up by five, 76-71. A three-pointer by Malcom Kelly at 1:19 brought Carthage within two, 76-74. After Eliud Gonzalez missed a free throw, the Red Men collected he ball, and Djurickovic scored on a running layup with 45 seconds to go to tie the game, 76-76. Sean Johnson scored on a layup with 20.2 seconds remaining to give the Titans a two-point advantage, 78-76. Kelly missed on wild layup, but Mitch Thompson's tip-in with 3.1 seconds sent the game into overtime tied at 78 each.
Trailing 86-84 in overtime, Djurickovic scored on another running layup to tie the game, 86-86, at 1:00. Sean Johnson answered with a layup at 37 seconds, and the Titans led by two, 86-86. Djurickovic scored on another layup with 24.3 second to re-tie the contest, 88-88. IWU had 17 seconds to set up a final play, but Johnson was called for traveling with 0.9 seconds to send the game into a second overtime period. With Illinois Wesleyan leading by two in the second overtime, 90-88, Jordan Zimmer connected on two free throws at 3:28 and three-pointer at 2:53 to give the Titans a seven-point lead, 95-88. Illinois Wesleyan went on to win by nine points, 103-94.
Illinois Wesleyan shot a sizzling 60 percent (40-67), including six-of-16 from three-point range, while Carthage shot 42 percent (33-78), including seven-of-29 three-pointers. The Red Men had a slight, 42-38 edge in rebounding. Four Titans players scored in double figures. Doug Sexauer had 34 points on 14-of-19 shooting. John Koschnitzky scored 21 points on eight-of-11 field goals. Sean Johnson and Jordan Zimmer had 15 points each. Steve Djurickovic (Sr., Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kenosha-Bradford) also had 34 points on 12-of-28 shooting, including zero-of-eight from three-point range, along with a perfect 10-of-10 free throws, four rebounds and four assists. Malcom Kelly had 23 points on eight-of-19 field goals, including four-of-10 three-pointers, and Nick Kladis chipped in 11 points.
"Coming into this game," said Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic, "we were only giving up 57 points a game. Tonight we gave up 103 in two overtimes, so I guess our defensive game plan was a little bit lacking. However, we were 18 points down and left everything on the floor. Illinois Wesleyan managed to make a couple of shots in the second overtime, and that was the game. We needed to get off to a good start in the second overtime, and we didn't. Losses are always hard to take, but this one is tough, because we gave ourselves a chance to win a very important conference road game. I can't fault our kids' effort. It was a great fans' game and a great small-college basketball game. The fans should have had to pay to get out. We have six games left, and every one of those is going to be a war. We need to give ourselves the best chance we can to get into the CCIW tournament, and let's face it—nobody is going to want to play us."