Elmhurst raids Cardinals' house
Ryan Burks walked into North Central's house, raided the fridge, grabbed the Cardinals' Wii for a quick game and while walking out asked for a favor.
Or something like that.
Actually, the senior guard poured in 28 points to lead Elmhurst College past North Central 74-63 Wednesday at Gregory Arena in Naperville to knock the Cardinals out of the CCIW men's basketball race. Elmhurst remains a game behind first-place Wheaton College with each team playing their regular-season finale Saturday at home. The Thunder, a 73-69 winner Wednesday at Carthage, will host the Cardinals.
"We're their biggest fans," Burks said. "We need their help to host the conference tournament."
A North Central win at Wheaton on Saturday and an Elmhurst win would put the Bluejays (18-6, 9-4) in a tie with Wheaton (21-3, 10-3) for the conference title. A tiebreaker would determine which team gets to host the postseason tournament, with an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament on the line.
That host won't be North Central (16-8, 9-5), which saw its hopes buried under Burks' 28 points.
"We're playing for getting into the tournament right now," Cardinals coach Todd Raridon said. "We have a quick turnaround for Saturday, and we can't dwell on this. We need to move ahead and move forward.
"This team has been very resilient all year long as far as not looking too far ahead and not dwelling on the past and staying within the moment, and they're going to have to on Saturday because it's a very good Wheaton basketball team."
It's been tough for these teams just getting to this point. Wheaton, which spent much of the season ranked No. 1 nationally, is at No. 7 now because of its three league losses, with Elmhurst at No. 21 and North Central among those teams getting votes. The league is hoping to get three bids to the NCAA tournament.
"I've been in the CCIW for 13 years," Elmhurst coach Mark Scherer said. "We have four teams ranked in the top four regionally. That's the first time in 13 years. So we're working hard for the CCIW championship and an NCAA bid."
Burks hit six 3-pointers in the game to pick up the scoring load from center Brent Ruch, who was held to 10 points and 3 rebounds.
"I was just trying to be aggressive early," Burks said. "Brent Ruch has carried us the whole season. I just felt like one game I wanted to try to step up offensively. And once I started taking shots I felt like I should keep shooting. They just kept going in."
Chris Childs added 15 points for the Bluejays.
Matt Rogers led North Central with 27 points, and fellow post player Chris Drennan added 17.
Elmhurst college 74, north central 63
Elmhurst - Bainter 0 1-2 1, Burks 9 6-8 28, Boyd 4 2-3 10, Ruch 5 0-0 10, Strzemp 0 0-0 0, mcCurdy 0 0-0 0, Bernier 1 0-0 3, Childs 5 3-4 15, Acosta 1 0-0 2, Hintzsche 1 3-3 5. Totals 26 15-20 74.
North Central - Raridon 1 1-1 3, Prince 3 1-2 7, Twyman 2 0-0 4, Drennan 7 3-4 17, Rogers 10 7-9 27, Knapczyk 0 0-0 0, Barringer 2 0-0 5, Evans 0 0-0 0, Adams 0 0-0 0, Corso 0 0-0 0. Totals 25 12-16 63.
Elmhurst College 34 40 -74
North Central 33 30 -63
3-point baskets: EC: Burks 4, Childs 2, Bernier. NC: Barringer. Fouled out: EC: Strzemp. NC: Raridon
Wheaton 73, carthage 69
Wheaton - McCrary 3 1-2 7, Carwell 1 0-0 2, Wiele 2 1-2 5, Panner 10 0-0 30, Raymond 2 11-12 15, Jahns 4 4-4 14, Pflederer 0 0-0 0, Carr 0 0-0 0, Smith 0 0-0 0. Totals 22 17-20 73.
Carthage - Shemerdiak 1 0-0 3, Tolo 6 1-3 13, Fendley 2 0-0 6, Hilton 3 0-0 9, Djurickovic 8 5-5 22, Higgins 2 0-0 6, Cary 2 0-0 5, Ideran 0 0-0 0, Stuart 2 1-1 5. Totals 26 7-9 69.
Wheaton 30 43 -73
Carthage 33 36 -69
3-point baskets: W: Panner 10, Jahns 2. C: Hilton 3, Fendley 2, Higgins 2, Shemerdiak, Djurickovic.
Fouled out: C: Hilton