Game Notes (MBK): Carthage College @ North Central College (2/20/21)

Final Score
Carthage 71, NCC 68

Game Summary
This one looked early like it might get out of hand despite the Cardinals (5-4) taking an early 6-3 lead. But the newly-minted Firebirds (4-5) began opening fire from beyond the arc, using a 14-1 run to help build what would become a 15 point lead at 24-9. But in the building of that lead that the Cardinal offense finally woke up and they began hitting threes as well, slowly cutting into the Carthage lead to make it 35-30 Firebirds at the intermission. The Cardinals opened the second half on fire, with an old fashioned three point play making way for back to back Brian Johnson threes, though after his second one he got a little too into it, got in the face of one of the Firebirds, and was T'd up. That stopped the bleeding and resulted in six straight for the Firebirds, who were able to retake brief control, though the Cardinals fought back to tie the game at 47, then took their first lead since very early in the game at 50-49. The teams traded a couple leads before Carthage started to assert control, though their lead wasn't huge. It was a three point game with about two and a half minutes to play, when the defenses asserted control until the final seconds, when Kyle Czerak hit a fallaway contested three at the end of the shot clock to put the Firebirds up six with just 34 seconds to go. NCC answered with a fairly quick three, got a miss on the front end of a one-and-one, and Blaise Meredith hit a pair of free throws with 6.3 seconds to go to make it 69-68 Carthage... eerily similar to The Miracle on Brainard Street a year and a day prior. Unfortunately this time, Carthage sank two free throws at the other end, and a Mike Pollack three fell short, allowing the Firebirds to escape with the win.

Key Players

• Josh Washburn (CAR): 7-11 FG (3-7 3PT), 4-4 FT; 21 pts, 5 reb, 3 ast, 1 stl. The senior rose to the occasion in this one, hitting a bunch of big shots early in the game, as he scored 10 in the first half, but kept it up in the second half. His two free throws with 4.9 seconds left sealed the deal for the Firebirds.
• Fillip Bulatovic (CAR): 5-15 FG (0-4 3PT), 5-10 FT; 15 pts, 11 reb (3 off), 6 ast, 3 stl. In last year's matchup, Bulatovic hit a bunch of big buckets to keep Carthage in control until the very end. This year, he still got his despite some inefficiencies, but also filled the stat sheet elsewhere. This guy is going to be a star in this league.
• Brian Johnson (NCC): 5-9 FG (all 3PT); 15 pts, 8 reb (1 off), 2 ast, 1 stl. I don't think it's too outlandish to call this something of a breakout game for Brian. He hit a couple threes in the first half to help get the Cardinals back into the game, then hit those back to back triples early in the second half that cut it to a one point game, but his technical to some degree I think took the wind out of NCC's sails.

Key Stats

• CAR: Outscored NCC in the paint 28-8. There were a few ways I could have gone here. Carthage was not good at the line, and had the Cardinals won I would have highlighted an 11-19 day at the stripe. Instead, I have to look at how the Firebirds were able to find some looks at the rim when they needed to, combined with a good outside shooting day. The combination proved to be too much.
• NCC: 14-37 3PT (37.8%). This is a pretty good percentage, for what it's worth. But when 37 of your 52 shots come from beyond the arc... this isn't ideal. Granted, quite a few misses were open looks that a lot of other times would fall. It's also important to note that Firebird center Sean Johnson and his 6'11" frame were in for much of the game to wreak havoc, but still.

CCIW Scoreboard/The Belt^TM Watch

• @ ELM 81 (4-1), MIL 79 (1-9)
• Elmhurst retains possession of The Belt^TM
• @ WHE 81 (9-0), CRL 55 (3-5)
• @ AUG 74 (5-1), NPU 7 1(1-10)
• BYE: IWU (4-0)
• WBK: @ CAR 72 (2-7), NCC 50 (1-8)

Final Thoughts
File under: Basketball is weird. Following a blowout up in Kenosha without Blaise Meredith no less, I'm not saying this should have been a cakewalk in the rematch in Naperville. But the Firebirds also always seem to play the Cardinals really tough, especially in Naperville, and Saturday was no exception.

Another stat I didn't put in up above for Carthage that I do have to mention: the Firebirds had just three points off the bench on Saturday, and it was on Kyle Czerak's ridiculous dagger three (that I think even rolled around a bit before falling). Czerak went to high school with my brother, prompting a text from my dad postgame of "Foiled by the ACC grad." Foiled indeed.

It's yet another tough loss for this Cardinal team that started pretty strong, but has really been struggling of late. Things don't get any easier to close out the regular season though, as a home-and-home with a currently unbeaten Wheaton team looms on the horizon.