KENOSHA, Wis. – The Carthage College men's basketball team earned a key victory on Saturday night behind a historic night for Jordan Thomas in Tarble Arena, as the Red Men topped the Millikin University Big Blue, 85-70.
 
The win sends the Red Men to 12-8 on the year and to 7-4 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, while the Big Blue fall to 10-11 and 3-9 in the conference.
 
"A nice job by us overall," said a pleased Bosko Djurickovic following the win.  "We defended them so much better than the last time we saw them.  We made them work hard for their shots and until the last five minutes of the game, which I wasn't particularly a fan of, we played an excellent basketball game."
 
The Red Men put together one of their best first halves of the season on Saturday to build an 18-point first half lead, 44-26.  Brad Kruse and Jordan Thomas led the Red Men with 14 points and 13 points respectively.  After a tightly contested first 13 minutes of the game, the Red Men went on a 20-4 run to close the half after being up six to take a 44-26 lead.  During the run, which lasted the final 6:43 of the half, Carthage went 5-8 from the field, including 3-3 from deep, and had runs of 8-0 and 9-0 scattered within.
 
The second half belonged to Thomas.  After opening with 14 points in the first half on 4-8 shooting, Jordan Thomas went unconscious, connecting on his first nine shots of the second half, including seven three pointers.  His only missed shot was the last of his night, finishing 13-18 from the field, 11-13 from three and 3-3 from the line.
 
Thomas finished the night with the tenth 40-point game in program history to lead Carthage in the win; the first since 2010 when, now assistant coach, Steve Djurickovic scored 40 against Albion.  His 11 three-pointers is a new Carthage and College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin record, breaking the previous Carthage mark of nine by Sean Fendley in 2008 and the CCIW record of ten by Wheaton's Ben Panner in 2009.
 
On the play of his senior guard Djurickovic said, "Jordan was special tonight.  You don't have 40-point games very often in this league and he was just in a great rhythm.  He was cutting great, he was getting himself open and we were getting him the ball on time.  Watching that was special tonight.  When he got in that rhythm it was like watching some of those shots Steph Curry takes.  He would catch it and the ball was out of his hand a split second after."
 
Thomas wasn't the only Red Men to have a stellar game, as Brad Kruse turned in yet another strong performance, finishing second on the team with 17 points on 6-7 shooting and tying for a team-high in rebounds, along with Sean Johnson, with eight and lead all players with six assists.
 
"When you look around there are a lot of contributing factors," noted the head coach.  "I thought that Brad Kruse had a very, very good night of all-around play.  Kienan Baltimore offensively got us off to a really good start.  Sean Johnson continues to get better.  Derek Mason had some very nice run in the second half."

As a team, the Red Men had one of their best shooting days of the season, connecting on 49.1% from the field on 26-53 shooting, and a season best 65.2% from three on 15-23 shooting, while holding Millikin to just 45.5% from the field and 38.5% from three.
 
The Red Men will look to win their second in a row on Wednesday on the road as the Red Men head to Waukesha to face instate rival, Carroll University.  Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m. from Van Male Fieldhouse.
 
Looking ahead Bosko said, "It is what it is.  We are off to Carroll on Wednesday and we need to keep it going."