The Carthage College men's basketball team (2-4, 0-0 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) lost to Lake Forest College (6-1), 63-60, on Tuesday, Dec. 6 at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.  The loss was the fourth in a row for the Red Men since winning the season-opening Carroll University "Johnson Bank Tip-Off Tournament."

Lake Forest jumped out to an 8-0 lead at 16:03.  Carthage tied the game, 14-14, at 8:41 and held the lead, briefly.  The Red Men led, 17-16, at 6:58 and 25-23 at 4:24.  The Foresters went into the locker room with a four-point lead at the break, 30-26.  Lake Forest upped its lead to seven, 33-26, at the start of the second half.  Carthage tied the game, 33-33, at 17:24, and the game was tied again, 35-35, at 16:43.  The Foresters took the lead to stay, 38-35, on a three-pointer by Dayton Young at 16:10.  Lake Forest extended its lead to as much as nine points, 57-48, at 5:41.  With the Foresters still leading by nine, 63-54, at 1:53, things got interesting at the end.  A pair of three-pointers by Malcom Kelly at 1:14 and with 27 seconds to go cut the lead to three, 63-60.  Lake Forest turned the ball over with 23 seconds left.  Carthage had three three-point attempts in the final 16 seconds, two by Kelly and one by Mitch Thompson, but missed on all three and fell, 63-60.

Lake Forest shot 50 percent (24-48), including 57 percent in the second half (13-23), while Carthage shot just 41 percent for the game (23-56), including 39 percent in the first period (10-26).  The Foresters had a whopping, 39-20 rebounding advantage over the Red Men.  Travis Clark topped Lake Forest with 19 points on eight-of-11 field goals, along with a game-high nine rebounds.  Chris Roets had 11 points, and Nate Bateman added 10 points and seven boards.  Carthage's Malcom Kelly (Jr., Kenosha, Wis./Reuther) scored a game-high 23 points on eight-of-25 from the floor, including four-of-16 three-pointers.  Kelly's 16 three-point attempts set a Carthage game record, breaking a mark of 15 set by Dave Maaske against Rockford College on Jan. 29, 1989 and subsequently matched by Bart Fabian versus Carroll (Wis.) on Dec. 5, 2001 and Adam Tolo in a Feb. 4, 2009 Illinois Wesleyan University contest.

Luke Johnson (Fr., Naperville, Ill./West Chicago-Wheaton Academy) had 11 points, Mitch Thompson (Jr., Orland Park, Ill./Sandburg) 10 points and five rebounds, and Tyler Pierce (Jr., Westmont, Ill.) had 10 points.  Max Cary (Sr., Geneva, Ill.) , who injured a leg in last Saturday's Hope College game, was not in uniform. 

"Strange as it might seem, I'm happier with this game than you might think," said Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic.  "We've finally identified a style of play that fits us.  I wasn't sure about that after playing Calvin and Hope, but I am now.  We have some really good players, but not a one of them has the same responsibilities they had last year.  We're making good progress.  I'm reasonably pleased with this game, and I still believe we're going to be a pretty good basketball team.  Lake Forest is an excellent team.  They move the ball extremely well, they play well together, and they're very experienced."

Carthage travels to Albion, Mich., on Saturday, Dec. 10 to take on Albion College (3-2) in a 5 p.m., EST contest at Kresge Gym.