The Carthage College men's basketball team (2-2, 0-0 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) opened play at the eighth-annual CCIW/MIAA Classic on Friday, Dec. 2 with a 71-68 loss to Calvin College (4-3) at Calvin's Van Noord Arena in Grand Rapids, Mich. No. 27 Hope College (5-1) upset No. 13 Wheaton College (Ill., 5-1), 79-78, in Friday's opening game. On Saturday, Dec. 3, Carthage plays Hope at 3:30 p.m., and Wheaton (Ill.) faces Calvin at 5:30 p.m.
Carthage opened up a 13-point lead in the first half, 22-9, at 7:41, but Calvin whittled the lead down to five points at halftime, 33-28. Trailing by three in the second half, 48-45, the Knights used a 5-0 run to take their first lead since the game's opening minutes, 50-48, at 11:21 on a three-pointer by Mitch Vallie. Calvin led by four points on three occasions, the last at 59-55 at 7:21. A three-point play by the Knights' Tyler Kruis upped the lead to five, 62-57, at 6:28.
Calvin still led by five, 64-59, at 4:23 when Malcom Kelly took over. Kelly was fouled on a three-point attempt and connected on all three free throws at 3:55 He followed with a breakaway layup to tie the game, 64-64, at 3:39. Calvin's Tom Snikkers made a free a throw at 3:21 to put the Knights back up by one, 65-64. Mitch Thompson's layup at 2:31 gave the Red Men at 66-65 lead, but Calvin re-gained the edge, 67-66, on a pair of Snikkers free throws at 2:19. A layup by Kruis with 46 seconds to play put the Knights up by three, 69-66. A dunk by Thompson with 21 seconds left made it a one-point game, 69-68. Calvin's David Rietema was fouled, and he made the first-of-two free throws to make it a two-point game, 70-68. With four seconds on the clock, Carthage's Malcom Kelly missed an open three-pointer that would have put the Red Men up by a point. Snikkers was fouled with 2.6 seconds left and made the first-of-two free throws to make it 71-68. Kelly's banked three-point attempt from midcourt at the buzzer just missed, and Carthage lost by three, 71-68.
Calvin shot 50 percent (26-52), including 63 percent in the second half (15-24), while Carthage shot 45 percent for the game (24-53). The Knights out-rebounded the Red Men, 33-28. Tom Snikkers and Matt DeBoer scored 15 points each for Calvin, DeBoers on six-of-11 shooting and Snikkers on five-of-11 field goals. Malcom Kelly (Jr., Kenosha, Wis./Reuther) scored a game-high 28 points on nine-of-19 from the floor, including four-of-nine three-pointers. Mitch Thompson (Jr., Orland Park, Ill..Sandburg) added 11 points and five rebounds for the Red Men.
"We just don't seem to be able to string together enough good plays," said head coach Bosko Djurickovic. "We also have not been able to find the combination of players that features what needs to be featured. For example, where do we play Malcom Kelly, who has way too much on his shoulders right now? Do we play a three-small lineup at the end of games, or do we go three-big? Those are the kinds of questions we have to work our way through. I'm not discouraged, but I am frustrated. We played well enough to win this game, but we didn't get it done. We had a bunch of unforced turnovers at the start of the second half that really hurt us. We have to go back to the drawing board, get some stuff done and come back tomorrow. Hope plays with a great pace, and their guard play is as good as anybody in the country."