ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The Carthage College Red Men won their opening game of the 2017 Webster University Classic, topping the Colonels of Centre College Friday night, 61-41.

"I thought we played an exceptional defensive basketball game against a very good team," said head coach Bosko Djurickovic.  "Our changing of defenses kept them off balance and allowed us to have a complete basketball game. We'll need another good effort tomorrow." 

The win moves the Red Men to 2-1 on the season, while the Colonels fall to 1-2.
 
In the first half, both team struggled shooting the ball early, with the Red Men and Colonels tied at 4-4 before Brad Kruse put the Red Men up two at the 13:32 mark of the first.
 
Carthage pushed the lead to as many as ten behind Jordan Thomas' team-high seven points at the half, before taking a six-point lead into the half, 25-19.
 
The Red Men offense found their rhythm in the second half, pushing the lead to 21 points as Jordan Thomas connected on his second three of the game to put Carthage up 57-36. 
 
Thomas finished with 14 points in the game behind leading scorer, Brad Kruse with 17.  Kruse went 8-15 from the field and 1-3 from three.  Joining Thomas and Kruse in double figures was Brad Perry with ten points on 5-10 shooting and Derek Mason, who also had ten, hitting four of his six field goals including 2-2 on threes. 
 
As a team the Red Men shot 38.7% from the field, 27.3% from three and 87.5% from the free throw stripe defensively held Centre to 30.6% on field goals, forced 13 turnovers and was plus-13 on the boards over the Colonels.
 
The Red Men will play for the championship on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. against the winner of the Coe College versus Webster University.