LA VERNE, Calif. — Trailing by three points with a minute left in the game, the La Verne men's basketball team turned the ball over on its final two possessions and lost 80-73 to Carthage on Tuesday afternoon at Sports Science and Athletic Pavilion.

With Carthage (7-3) leading 76-73, Kienan Baltimore stole the ball from La Verne's Jordan Stokes and while the Leopards forced Mike Stevenson to miss a midrange jumper, Stevenson grabbed the rebound off his own miss, got fouled on the putback attempt and drained two free throws to give the Red Men a 5-point lead with nine seconds to go.

The Leopards (5-3) then turned the ball over again on the ensuing possession and Carthage sealed the win.

Stokes led La Verne with 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting and grabbed four boards. Anthony White scored 14 points and Hakim Arnold had 12 points, six rebounds and six assists.

Stevenson finished with a game-high 34 points for Carthage and Jordan Thomas added 15 points.

La Verne had to claw back from another big deficit to make it a game. Carthage went up by as much as 18 points in the first half and kept La Verne at an arm's length for most of the game. La Verne slowly chipped away at the lead in the second half and used a late 9-2 run to get within 74-73 with 1:44 left to go but couldn't get over the hump.

The Leopards went down by as many as 29 points on Sunday against No. 8 Whitworth before mounting a furious rally to make it close.

Carthage shot 50 percent from the field and went 8-for-18 from beyond the arc (44.4 percent).

The Leopards are back in action on Tuesday, Dec. 28 against Colorado College at 3 p.m.