After upsetting No. 1 North Central College on Wednesday, the Carthage College men's basketball team (6-9, 1-3 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) couldn't keep the upset roll going on Saturday, Jan. 12, as the Red Men fell to No. 22 Illinois Wesleyan University (12-3, 4-0 CCIW), 82-65, at the Shirk Center in Bloomington, Ill.  The Titans lead the CCIW standings with that 4-0 mark.

Carthage had a 12-12 tie at 14:43, but the Red Men were held scoreless for the next six minutes, as the Titans opened up a 14-point lead, 26-12, at 8:12.  Carthage whittled the lead down to six points, 34-28, at 2:36, but Illinois Wesleyan closed out the half on a 9-0 run to lead by 15 at the break, 43-28.

The Red Men opened the second period on a 11-2 run to close the gap to six points, 45-39, at 18:19.  The Titans, however, took charge with a 18-4 run to take a 20-point lead, 63-43, at 11:42.  The lead went to 23 points, 72-49, at 7:00, as Illinois Wesleyan cruised to a 17-point victory, 82-65.

Illinois Wesleyan shot 48 percent (24-50), including seven-of-18 from three-point range, while Carthage shot just 39 percent (22-57), including eight-of-18 three-pointers.  The Titans shot 56 percent overall in the first half (14-25), while the Red Men shot just 33 percent (9-27) in the opening period.  Illinois Wesleyan got to the free-throw line 30 times and made 27, while Carthage went 13-of-21 .  The Titans had a 39-28 rebounding advantage. 

Pat Sodemann led Illinois Wesleyan with 20 points on six-of-11 shooting, including four-of-five three-pointers, along with a perfect four-of-four free throws.  Brady Zimmer scored 10 points, and Dylan Overstreet added eight points with eight assists.  Tyler Pierce (Sr., Westmont, Ill.) led the Red Men with a game-high 22 points on seven-of-14 field goals, along with six-of-eight from the free-throw line and four rebounds.  Reese Herth (So., Morton Grove, Ill./Skokie-Niles West) scored 14 points on four-of-seven shooting, including three-of-three three-pointers, along with five rebounds.

"I thought we had things stabilized at the start of the second half," said Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic, "but we broke down and rushed a couple of shots.  Frankly, we just didn't play well enough to beat a good team on the road.  They're an excellent basketball team, and their record speaks for that.  We have to play better to beat teams like this on the road.  Illinois Wesleyan has excellent depth, even though they don't have any 'wow' players.  They play with a very good purpose.  Meanwhile, our depth inside is just not there.  We're just our-manned against teams like Illinois Wesleyan with great size depth.  We had a good game plan against North Central and executed it.  Tonight, we had a good game plan but didn't execute.  We fell behind because of lack of attention to detail."

Carthage travels to Elmhurst, Ill., on Wednesday, Jan. 16 to play CCIW-opponent Elmhurst College (4-11, 0-4 CCIW) in a 7:30 p.m. game at R.A. Faganel Hall.