North Central wins big against Elmhurst
The stat sheet states that Tuesday’s men’s basketball game between Elmhurst College and North Central saw just one lead change.
That’s all North Central needed.
After spotting Elmhurst an early 6-point lead, the host Cardinals roared back to rout the Bluejays 70-56 in Naperville.
A pair of Jerome Robinson free throws gave Elmhurst a 12-6 lead with 11:59 left in the first half, but the Bluejays managed just 9 points over that final 11:59.
A Kevin Gillespie 3-pointer tied the score at 14 with 9:22 left, and with 8:43 to go a Kyle Pembrook (Neuqua Valley) basket registered the game’s lone lead change. By halftime North Central (9-5, 3-0 CCIW) led 39-21.
“They were really were helping so much on our post players that it opened up our outside,” North Central coach Todd Raridon said.
Aaron Tiknis led the Cardinals’ barrage from outside, making all four of his 3-point shots to finish with 14 points. He also had 7 rebounds and a career-high 8 assists. Vince Kmiec also scored 14 for the Cardinals, Kevin Gillespie and Landon Gamble each added 13 points and Derek Raridon (Neuqua Valley) 10.
North Central led by as many as 25 points in the second half before Elmhurst cut the lead to 13 with 3:59 left.
“It was a struggle at times,” Raridon said. “I was disappointed in the second half, how we built a lead and they whittled that lead down. Our defense was, we were so concerned with our offense that we quit playing defense and that’s how you let teams back in.”
Nick Sanford led Elmhurst (7-7, 1-2) with 18 points, and James Robertson and Zack Boyd added 11 apiece.
The Cardinals put their undefeated CCIW record on the line against rival Wheaton on Saturday night.
“We’ll take it at this point, but it’s a young season,” Raridon said about the good start in conference play. “There are still 11 games left in the season and we know every game is not going to be easy. And tonight was not easy and it won’t be easy at Wheaton. They’re an excellent basketball team. They’re having a great year and we just have to prepare and hope for the best on Saturday.”