North Central was ready to celebrate something. Instead Wheaton College wore the postgame smiles.
The Thunder defeated North Central 64-61 Saturday night, eight years to the day it last won a men’s basketball game at Gregory Arena in Naperville.
“It’s a great win for us,” Thunder coach Mike Schauer said. “The biggest reason it’s a great win is they’re just really good. This is one of the most balanced opponents our league has had since I’ve been in the league. Their top five or six guys are all such good players, and (North Central coach Todd Raridon) has been winning games since I’ve been alive.
“We had to have it. The last two nights we played, against Elmhurst and Carthage, we’ve faced a desperate team. I thought tonight North Central faced a desperate team. It’s one we had to have, A, if we were going to get into the conference tournament, and fortunately we were able to do that tonight; and B, if we were to keep any hopes of getting into the NCAA Tournament alive.”
The Thunder (18-5, 9-3) moved within a game of the Cardinals (16-7, 10-2) in the CCIW standings with two games to play. The regular-season champion hosts the league’s four-team postseason tournament.
“We still control our own destiny,” said Todd Raridon, whose team plays seventh-place North Park on Tuesday.
The Cardinals led only once, when C.J. Goldthree converted a three-point play with 2:06 left in the second half, making the score 59-56. It was a nervous moment for the Thunder.
“Kind of,” said Wheaton sophomore Jon DeMoss (St. Charles North). “I’ve got to be honest. I’m not going to lie. But I think we stuck to it, we locked in on defense and that’s what won it for us.”
The lead lasted just 18 seconds. Wheaton’s Jeremy Pflederer tied the game again with a 3-pointer from the left corner, and with 53 seconds to go Aaron Garriott knocked down a 3 from the top of the key to give Wheaton a 62-59 lead.
“We took the lead there and I thought we had a chance,” Raridon said. “We got a stop and unfortunately we didn’t get the offensive rebound. We gave them another chance and they hit a big shot from the corner and another big shot from the top of the key. Their two players stepped up and made big plays and we couldn’t get it done.”
The Cardinals had two chances to tie the game, but a Derek Raridon (Neuqua Valley) 3-pointer from the right corner with 34 seconds left missed, and as did Kevin Gillespie’s off-balance 3 with 12 seconds to go.
“We just locked down on defense,” DeMoss said. “Really what it was we shared the load tonight. We tried to focus on boxing out and rebounding and I think that really helped. That was our focus all week in practice, and we knew that if we did it in practice, we could transfer it to the games. It would eventually pay off and we would get the win.”
Tyler Peters led Wheaton with 17 points and 7 rebounds, Tim McCrary had 12 points and 8 rebounds and Pflederer scored 10 points.
Landon Gamble led North Central with 19 points, Goldthree scored 15 off the bench and Aaron Tiknis added 12, but Derek Raridon, averaging 13.5 points a game, was held to 2 points on 1-of-4 shooting.
“We held Derek to 2 points, but Landon Gamble probably had 50,” Schauer said. “The thing that makes North Central so good is the thing you want to take away from them, they have somewhere else to go. The first game we did a much better job on Gamble and tonight could not stop him. Part of that is he’s great. Nobody stops him.”
In the women’s game that preceded the men’s, Wheaton (16-7, 9-3) won 72-54 behind Breanna Bohlen’s 18 points and 12 from Lauren Graham (Wheaton North).
