The Carthage College men's basketball team (11-9, 4-5 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) lost to CCIW-opponent Wheaton College (Ill., 14-5, 5-4 CCIW), 80-60, on Thursday, Feb. 3 at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.  The loss, for the moment, left the Red Men in fifth place in the league and out of the CCIW Men's Basketball Tournament with five games to play.

The game went back-and-forth in the early going, but Wheaton went up, 13-12, at 12:26 and went on to build a 13-point lead, 37-24, at 3:50.  The Thunder led by eight points at the break, 41-33.  After Wheaton went up by 13 points, 48-35, at 18:10, Carthage made a run, closing to within five points, 48-43, at 15:41, before the Thunder went back up by 11 points, 54-43, at 14:20.  The Red Men stayed within seven or eight points for the next five minutes before Wheaton began to pull away.  The Thunder went up by 10, 60-50, at 9:04.  Back-to-back jumpers by Tim McCrary made it a 13-point game, 64-51, at 7:31, and a layup by Jeremy Pflederer at 5:35 gave Wheaton a 17-point edge, 70-53.  The Thunder went on to win by 20 points, 80-60.

Wheaton shot a sizzling 62 percent (33-53), including just three-of-six from three-point range.  The Thunder scored 26 of the 41 first-half points from in the paint and out-rebounded the Red Men by 12 for the game, 32-20.  Tim McCrary led Wheaton with 26 points on 11-of-16 field goals, along with a game-high 12 rebounds and six assists.  Jeremy Pflederer had 13 points, Spencer Schultze 12, and Jon DeMoss came off the bench to add 11 points. 

For Carthage, Steve Djurickovic (Sr., Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kenosha-Bradford) scored a game-high 27 points on seven-of-18 shooting, including one-for-five from three-point range, along with 12-of-14 free throws but no assists for only the second time in his four-year career.  Djurickovic was held to no assists against Olivet Nazarene on Dec. 11, 2007, his freshmen year.  Mitch Thompson (So, Orland Park, Ill./Sandburg) was the only other Carthage player in double figures with 13 points and five rebounds.

"Disappointing would not even cover how I feel about this loss," said Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic, "Our effort, our execution and our ability to play through adversity was a complete failure.  My name is on this, so that's my fault.  I thought we were ready.  We let Wheaton do pretty much whatever they wanted on both ends of the court—give them credit.  We allowed them to be way more efficient than they should be.  Quite frankly, we got what we deserved, and we don't deserve to be any better than what we are.  What started out as a promising season is not unfolding that way.   Our defense, which had been really good for a month or so, has gone the other way the last two games.  Augustana is certainly not going to be easy this Saturday.  If we're not ready to compete, we'll be in trouble."

Carthage travels to Rock Island, Ill., on Saturday, Feb. 5 to take on conference-opponent and No. 3 Augustana College (Ill., 20-0, 9-0 CCIW) in a 7:30 p.m. game at the Carver Physical Education Center.