The Carthage College men's basketball team (5-6, 0-0 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) closed its non-conference schedule on Sunday night, Dec. 30 with a 79-60 win over Benedictine University (Ill., 3-10) at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.

Carthage opened a 13-point lead, 23-10, at 10:44.  The Red Men were still up by 12 points, 28-16, at 8:23 before the Eagles took off on a 14-2 run to tie the game, 30-30, at 5:01.  Carthage led by eight points at the break, 42-34.  Benedictine opened the second period with a 17-9 spurt that tied the game once again, 51-51, at 13:42.  The Red Men came back with a 13-3 run to take a 10-point lead, 64-54, at 5:55.  Carthage pulled away from there to win by 19 points, 79-60.

Carthage shot 53 percent  (30-57), including six-of-18 three-pointers, while Benedictine shot 43 percent (21-49), also including six-of-18 from three-point range.  The Red Men had narrow, 33-29 rebounding advantage, with the Eagles turning the ball over 17 times to 11 for Carthage.

Four Red Men scored in double figures.  Tyler Pierce (Sr., Westmont, Ill.) led the way with a game-high 16 points on seven-of-10 field goals, along with two-of-four free throws.  Reese Herth (So., Morton Grove, Ill./Skokie-Niles West) scored 14 points on five-of-11 shooting.  

Mitch Thompson (Sr., Orland Park, Ill./Sandburg) had 13 points and a game-high nine rebounds, and Kevin Sykes Jr. (Jr., Tinley Park, Ill./Frankfort—Lincoln-Way North) came off the bench to score 12 points.  Raphael Oglesby and Tim McGinty each had 12 points for the Eagles.

"We got off to a good start and had a good finish," said Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic.  "We had some lulls in the middle.   Benedictine played well, and they have two guys who can really hurt you.  Our bench played well tonight.  We're a different basketball team than we started out on Oct. 15, and we have to continue to adjust.  We had one of the best NCAA Division III airport teams in October, but with injuries, we don't have that team anymore.  We'll need to be a little bit creative in our approach to each individual ball game.  We're not going to be able to just line up and play the conference schedule straight—it's going to take some imagination.  We have going to have meld together and defend five-on-five.  We're also moving the ball very well, and we need to do that."

Carthage opens its CCIW-schedule on Wednesday, Jan. 2 by traveling to Decatur, Ill., to play Millikin University (4-7, 0-0 CCIW in a 7:30 p.m. game at the Griswold Physical Education Center.