The Carthage College men's basketball team (4-6, 0-0 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) closed out play at the Northwood University (Fla.) "English Family Classic" on Tuesday, Dec. 18 with an 88-51 loss to St. Thomas University (Fla., 11-2 and ranked 18th in the Dec. 12 NAIA Division II poll) at the Countess de Hoernle Student Life Center in West Palm Beach, Fla.
On Monday, Dec. 17, Carthage gave Northwood (Fla., 11-1 and ranked fifth in the NAIA poll) all it could handle but came up on the short end of a 98-90 overtime game.
In the loss to St. Thomas, the Red Men fell behind the Bobcats by 15 points in the first half, 37-22, at 3:10 and trailed by 14 points at the break, 43-29. St. Thomas opened the second period with a 21-8 run to up its lead to 27 points, 64-37. Then Bobcats made it a 30-point game, 74-44, at 6:35 and led by as much as 40, 88-48, at 1:41. St. Thomas went to win by 37 points, 88-51.
St. Thomas shot 52 percent (33-63), including a blistering 11-of-14 from three-point range. Carthage shot just 36 percent (20-56), including only two-of-17 from three-point range. The Bobcats had a 37-32 rebounding advantage, but the Red Men turned the ball over 22 times to 14 for St. Thomas.
Dylan O'Sullivan led the Bobcats with a game-high 27 points on 11-of-20 field goals, including two-of-three three-pointers, along with three-of-four free throws. Demonté Simpson came off the bench to add 14 points and a game-high 10 rebounds, while Kevin Hincapie had 13 points and seven assists. Mitch Thompson (Sr., Orland Park, Ill./Sandburg) led the Red Men with 14 points on seven-of-12 shooting, along with five rebounds. Luke Johnson (So., Naperville, Ill./West Chicago-Wheaton Academy) added 10 points and five boards.
"It was a horrific performance by us," said Bosko Djurickovic in his 700th career appearance as a head coach (273-152 in 17 years at Carthage, 196-79 in 10 years at North Park thru Dec. 18). "We were out-competed, out-executed and out-toughed. They kicked our butt from the first minute until the last. If this was a fight, it would have been stopped in the third round. The only excuse I can possibly make is that their style of play is impossible to prepare for in a 30-minute shoot around. We knew they would be tough, but no one could imagine that they would be as effective as they were, and that we would be as ineffective as we were. We are too reliant on Donte Logan, and he was worn down after playing 45 minutes last night. The mood in the locker room was so positive last night, but it's a 180 degree turn right now. We have some tweaks to make, but I still believe this is a good basketball team. It's my responsibility to get a better effort than we got tonight, and we will do in the Benedictine game on Dec. 30."
Carthage plays its final non-conference contest on Sunday, Dec. 30 when the Red Men play host to Benedictine University (Ill.) in a 7:30 p.m. game at Tarble Arena.