North Central, Wheaton advance to CCIW final
Just minutes after the North Central men’s basketball team’s 63-56 win over Augustana on Friday, Derek Raridon was getting ready to jump in an ice bath.
No better way to celebrate a berth in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Tournament championship.
Raridon scored a game-high 18 points, sophomore forward Landon Gamble added 15, and the Cardinals advanced to their first CCIW final since 2006 by holding off Augustana at Gregory Arena in Naperville. The physical, back-and-forth affair featured nine ties, seven lead changes, 34 fouls — and an endless parade of floor burns.
“That’s what you get playing against Augustana,” Raridon said. “They work really hard, and you’ve got to keep battling with them.
“Unfortunately, there’s times when you get tossed around. But that’s part of the game.”
Top-seeded North Central (19-7) will play No. 2 Wheaton (21-5) — which beat Illinois Wesleyan 69-56 Friday — at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Gregory Arena for the conference championship and an automatic berth in the NCAA Division III Tournament.
The Cardinals earned their spot in the final with an 11-3 run to close the game, taking control after Bryant Voiles hit a pair of free throws to give Augustana a 53-52 lead with 4:01 to play.
Junior forward Aaron Tiknis got the Cardinals started with a 3-pointer off an offensive rebound that made it 55-53. After Voiles executed a pretty spin move for a layup to tie the game at 55-55, Gamble backed Augustana’s Brandon Kunz down along the baseline and muscled past him for a short jumper from the right side to give North Central a 57-55 edge with 2:59 to play.
The lead was just one when Raridon took his defender into the post and found a cutting Tiknis, who caught the ball under the backboard and contorted his body to bank home a righthanded layup for a 59-56 edge.
“Aaron is always moving without the ball,” Raridon said. “He made a great cut under the basket, and the only option was to give it to him.”
The Vikings got no closer, failing to record a field goal over the game’s final 3:22.
“It was a hard-fought battle with two teams really going at it,” Augustana coach Grey Giovanine said “They made a couple more plays than we did.”
Augustana (19-7) was the first team to create some breathing room Friday, holding North Central to 39.3 percent shooting — including 0 for 10 on 3-pointers — in the first half and building a 30-23 lead on a 3-pointer by Brian DeSimone and a layup by Troy Rorer.
But the Cardinals regrouped after a timeout, closing the half with a 7-0 run that made it 30-30 at the intermission.
“That was a big run by us,” North Central coach Todd Raridon said. “You get back in the ballgame. I thought that getting back to even when we were not playing very well, we were still in pretty good shape.”
North Central has won 15 of its last 17 games. The Cardinals’ only two losses during that stretch came against the Wheaton team that had to survive a scare in Friday’s early game.
Wheaton (21-5) led 50-34 at the 11:30 mark, but Illinois Wesleyan cut the deficit to four with a 14-2 run over the next six minutes. The Thunder steadied itself, however, and got a 19-point, 12-rebound performance from senior Tim McCrary.
“We just couldn’t score,” Wheaton coach Mike Schauer said. “Tonight is a night I’m just thankful we defended with as much intensity as we did.”