The Carthage College men's basketball team (14-9, 7-5 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) stayed alive in its bid for a berth in the CCIW Men's Basketball Tournament with a 73-65 win over CCIW-opponent and second-place North Central College (12-10, 8-3 CCIW) at Merner Fieldhouse/Gregory Arena in Naperville, Ill.

The win, combined with Wheaton College's 78-76 overtime-victory over Illinois Wesleyan, kept the Red Men in a fourth-place tie with the Thunder.

Carthage opened an early, 11-point lead, 18-7, at 10:24. The Red Men made it 18 points, 29-11, at 6:05, thanks to back-to-back-to-back three-pointers by Jon Cieski. A jumper by Max Cary at 4:08 gave Carthage a 20-point lead, 33-13. The Cardinals managed to whittle things down to 13 points at the break, 40-27. North Central pulled to within eight, 43-35, at 17:40 after back-to-back three-pointers by Kevin Gillespie, the second a bank shot as the time clock expired. The Cardinals made it four points, 43-39, at 13:51 on back-to-back layups by Landon Gamble.

Consecutive layups by Derek Raridon cut the lead to three points, 50-47, at 8:03. A three-pointer by Raridon at 7:39 made it a two-point game, 52-50. It was still two points, 58-56, until Max Cary scored on a North Central turnover and a layup to make it 60-56 at 3:08. A three-pointer by Malcom Kelly at 2:17 put the Red Men up by seven, 63-56. North Central got it back to two once again, 67-65, with 25.8 seconds remaining on a three-pointer by Raridon, but Steve Djurickovic was fouled and made two free throws with 24.6 seconds to go to put Carthage up by four, 69-65. The Red Men went on to win by eight points, 73-65.

Carthage shot 56 percent (24-45), including nine-of-20 from three-point range, while North Central shot 42 percent (24-57), including eight-of-22 three-pointers and 60 percent overall in the first half (15-25). The Cardinals out-rebounded the Red Men, 31-24. Steve Djurickovic (Sr., Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kenosha-Bradford) was the lone Carthage player in double figures with 23 points on six-of-11 field goals, along with a perfect 11-of-11 from the free-throw line and 10 assists. Landon Gamble led North Central with 19 points on eight-of-14 field goals, along with six rebounds. Derek Raridon scored 15 points on five-of-11 shooting, and Kevin Gillespie added 12 points.

"This was a good, solid effort for 40 minutes," said coach Bosko Djurickovic. "We did a great job when we were fresh in the first half—a little less good in the second half. North Central's interior passing is really good, and we were fortunate that they didn't shoot the ball well early. The last three minutes of the first half were a killer, because we let them get some momentum. All of the sudden in the second half, it became a ball game. We did a good job of getting the ball into Steve Djurickovic's hands, and it was another good, 40-minute effort by him. He did a yeoman's job, like he usually does. Now we still have a two-game season to play that starts with North Park on Wednesday. We need to finish the season as best we can."

Carthage travels to Chicago on Wednesday, Feb. 16 to play conference-opponent North Park University (10-13, 4-8 CCIW) in a 7:30 p.m. game at the North Park Gym.