The Carthage College men's basketball team (10-11, 5-5 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) dropped its second-straight CCIW-road game on Saturday night, Feb. 2 with an 83-74 loss to No. 26 Augustana College (Ill., 16-5, 6-4 CCIW) at the Roy J. Carver Center in Rock Island, Ill.  The loss left the Red Men in fifth place in the league, one game out of the four-team CCIW Men's Basketball Tournament with four games remaining.

Carthage took an early, 5-0 lead.  The Red Men were still nursing a narrow lead, 14-12, at 11:14, before the Vikings launched a 23-7 run that put them up by 14 points, 35-21, at 2:24.  Carthage whittled that margin down to nine points, 36-27, at the break. 

A jumper by Mitch Thompson and a three-pointer from Reese Herth to start the second half brought the Red Men to within four, 36-32.  A three-pointer by Thompson at 17:32 made it a three-point game, 38-35.  The Vikings went back up by seven, 44-37, at 15:37, but the Red Men got it back to one, 46-45, at 13:43.  A 12-2 Augustana run put the Vikings up by 10 points, 58-48, at 10:30, and the lead went to 12 points, 64-52, at 8:44.  Carthage got it back to eight point, 66-58, at 7:34, but eight unanswered Viking points made it a 16-point contest, 74-58, a 6:00.  The Red Men made a run at the Vikings in the final minutes, closing to within six points, 80-74, at 1:28, but Augustana hung on with a nine-point win, 83-74.

The Vikings shot a blistering 60 percent (30-50), including four-of-seven from three-point range, while the Red Men shot 44 percent (21-48), including eight-of-18 three-pointers.  Carthage got to the free-throw line 31 times and made 24, while Augustana connected on 19-of-22.  The Vikings had a 33-20 rebounding advantage. 

Augustana had five players in double figures.  Ben Ryan led the way with 15 points and four rebounds.  Brandon Kunz had 14 points and eight rebounds, Mark Roth 12 points, with Griffin Pils and Tayvian Johnson adding 10 points each. 

Carthage's Mitch Thompson (Sr., Orland Park, Ill./Sandburg) led the Red Men with a game-high 20 points on nine-of-15 field goals, including two-of-four three-pointers, along with seven rebounds.  Reese Herth (So., Morton Grove, Ill./Skokie-Niles West) scored 16 points on four-of-10 shooting, along with six-of-seven free throws, and Donte Logan (So., Evanston, Ill./Skokie-Niles West) added 11 points.  Marlon Senior (Jr., Skokie, Ill./Niles North) missed the game with an ankle injury.

"We seem to be just a little short," admitted Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic.  "This was a competitive game played at a fierce pace.  It was a man's game.  We put some pressure on them, but I looked up and we're down 10 points.  Mark Roth got away from us.  He's not a special player, but he's a special shooter, and he hurt us when we had just made a nice run.  Mitch Thompson had a nice game, and he's had a good season.   This team plays as hard as they're capable of playing, and they really care about Carthage basketball.  We were in a position to pull this out, but we weren't quite able to do enough to pull this out."

Carthage plays host to CCIW-opponent Elmhurst College (5-16, 1-9 CCIW) on Wednesday, Feb. 6 in a 7:30 p.m. game at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.