The Carthage College men's basketball team (16-9, 9-5 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) stayed alive in its bid for a berth in the CCIW Men's Basketball Tournament with a last-second, 55-53 win over Millikin University (1-22, 0-13 CCIW) on Saturday afternoon, Feb. 19 at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.
The Red Men must now await the completion of the CCIW regular-season schedule, including next Tuesday's game between Augustana College (Ill.) and Illinois Wesleyan University, to see if they qualify for the Friday-Saturday, Feb. 25-26 CCIW Men's Basketball Tournament.
Carthage needs an Augustana win in Tuesday's game to secure the berth. A win for the Titans would place Wheaton College (Ill.), Carthage and Illinois Wesleyan in a three-way tie for fourth place. In that event, Wheaton (Ill.) would gain the third seed based on its two wins over Carthage The next step would be to determine which team gets the No. 4 seed, Illinois Wesleyan or Carthage. The Titans and Red Men split their season series, and under this scenario, both teams will have finished 1-1 against first place Augustana College (Ill.) and second place North Central College. Illinois Wesleyan finished 1-1 against the next place team, which is Wheaton, while Carthage was 0-2 against the Thunder. This would give Illinois Wesleyan the fourth and final seed.
Millikin, led for most of the first half. Carthage's only lead was at 10-9 at 13:38. The Big Blue inched away to a nine-point lead at halftime, 31-22. Millikin bumped its lead to 13 points early in the second half, 35-22, at 18:12. After that, the Red Men started to whittle away at the lead. Carthage went ahead, 47-46, at 4:26 on a layup by Mitch Thompson. The game went back and forth the rest of the way. Millikin took its last lead, 53-51, with 54 seconds remaining on a free throw by Nikko Robertson. A pair of free throws by the Red Men's Jon Cieski at 36 seconds tied the game, 53-53. Robertson turned the ball over at six seconds, with Max Cary collecting the steal. Cary's driving layup attempt rolled left out of the cylinder. The Red Men's Jon Ciskei tipped the ball back in with 0.2 seconds left to put Carthage up by two, 55-53. The Big Blue were unable to get a shot off on their final possession.
Carthage shot just 31 percent (16-52), including four-of-22 from three-point range, while Millikin shot 40 percent (19-48), including four-of-10 three-pointers. The Red Men out-rebounded the Big Blue, 36-31. Three Carthage players scored in double figures. Malcom Kelly (So., Kenosha, Wis./Reuther) had 14 points on four-of-19 field goals, including two-of-seven from three-point range. Steve Djurickovic (Sr., Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kenosha-Bradford) scored 10 points on a perfect 10-of-10 from the free-throw line. The senior guard did not score a field goal for the first time in 105 Carthage games. Max Cary (Jr., Geneva, Ill.) came off the bench to add 10 points. Kyle Taylor topped Millikin with a game-high 20 points on seven-of-19 shooting, along with a game-high 11 rebounds. Nikko Robertson added 14 points.
"I told Millikin coach Marc Smith," said Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic, "that if I wasn't in the position I'm in, I would have rooted for him. His team played better and harder than we did, and they had every right to win the game. We preserved and made a basket late in the game to win it. We had to play four-small most of the game to match their people—it just wasn't an easy game for us to play. Quite frankly, we didn't play well enough to make it an easy game. Steve Djurickovic didn't play very well. I don't think he's ever had a game without a basket. It is what it is. I did some calculation this morning, and the record of the teams we lost to this year is ridiculous. We have played a great schedule"