The Carthage College men's basketball team (7-9, 1-4 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) finished a rough week of conference play on Saturday night, Jan. 16 with a 71-63 loss to No. 3 Augustana College (Ill., 16-1, 4-1) at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.  On Wednesday, Jan. 13, the Red Men fell to No. 2 Elmhurst College (14-1, 4-0 CCIW), 78-58, also at Tarble Arena

Carthage fell behind early and trailed Augustana by 10 points, 14-4, at 15:38.  The Vikings were still leading by nine points, 32-23, at 5:43 before the Red Men used an 8-1 run to close to within two, 33-31, at 1:28.  A three-pointer by Dylan Sortillo and a technical foul on Carthage's Sean Valentine in the final minute of the half helped Augustana open up a nine-point halftime lead, 40-31.  Following the technical, the Vikings connected on three free throws, the first by Brandon Motzel stemming from a personal foul and the other two by Hunter Hill due to the technical.

Elmhurst went up by 15 points midway thru the second period, 60-45, at 8:29, but Carthage battled back to make it a six-point game, 65-59, with 48 seconds to play.  Two free throws each by Hunter Hill and Ben Ryan in the final 30 seconds gave the Vikings an eight-point win, 71-63.  "We had opportunities, including six down with the ball at the end," said Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic, "but we made a bad pass, and the game was basically over."

Augustana shot 42 percent (25-of-59), including just three-of-16 from three-point range, while Carthage shot 41 percent (23-of-56), including nine-of-24 from three-point range.  The Vikings got to the free-throw line 25 times and made 18, while the Red Men connected on eight-of-11.  Augustana had a narrow, 38-36 edge in rebounding but turned the ball over just six time to 11 turnovers for Carthage.

Four Viking starters scored in double figures, with Ben Ryan (Sr., Washington, Ill.) having a monster game with game highs of 23 points and 16 rebounds.  Ryan connected on 10-of-17 field goals, along with three-of-four free throws.  Brandon Motzel scored 17 points on seven-of-nine shooting, along with nine rebounds.  Hunter Hill and Griffin Pils had 10 points each.  Myles Olsen (Sr., East Troy, Wis.) was the only Carthage player in double figures with a career-high 18 points on seven-of-11 field goals, including four-of-six three-pointers.

"When you play poorly and lose, it hurts," said Djurickovic, "and when you play well and lose, it still hurts.  Our guys did good job tonight and competed at the best level.  We put ourselves in a position to make some kind of run at the end, but it just didn't happen.  Give Augustana credit—they find ways to win.  We executed well.  We took away what we wanted to take away, but we just didn't have any room for error.  We played well tonight, and I'm proud of the effort.  We played 36 or 37 minutes with a national-championship-type team, and we played them basically even."

Carthage travels to Naperville, Ill., on Wednesday, Jan. 20 to play No. 25 North Central College (11-5, 4-1 CCIW) in a 7 p.m. game at Merner Fieldhouse/Gregory Arena.  The Cardinals were a 94-89 winner at Illinois Wesleyan University on Saturday night.