FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302
Box Score

WHEATON, Ill. (Feb. 21, 2009) - In what turned out to be a preview of next week's College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Tournmament semifinal, the North Central College men's basketball team fell victim to a strong early second-half effort by Wheaton College and lost, 70-60, to the Thunder at King Arena.

The Cardinals (16-9, 8-6 CCIW) will travel to Wheaton again on Friday to face the Thunder in the conference Tournament. Wheaton clinched the CCIW Championship with Saturday's victory.

North Central emerged late in the first half to take the lead, as four straight free throws by Mitch Raridon (Sr., Lincoln, Neb./Lincoln Northeast) and a basket by Chris Drennan (Sr., Bloomington, Ill./Normal Community) provided the Cardinals with a 27-24 advantage. Raridon tacked on a three-pointer and Drennan converted a layup in the final three minutes of the period, sending the visitors into halftime ahead, 32-31.

Wheaton (22-3, 11-3 CCIW), however, opened the second half with a 9-0 surge to regain the lead. The Cardinals scrambled back to within just a single point of the hosts at 50-49 following a three-pointer by Reid Barringer (Jr., Sycamore, Ill./Sycamore) with 6:41 to go, but a dunk by Wheaton's Jake Carwell sparked a 13-4 run that gave the Thunder a 63-53 edge with 1:48 left.

The Cardinals narrowed the gap to 64-60 on Matt Rogers' (Sr., Rochelle, Ill./Rochelle) with 54 seconds left, but Wheaton made 6 of 6 free throws in the final 45 seconds to prevent North Central from threatening any further.

Raridon totaled a career-high 22 points on 7 of 9 shooting from the floor. Mark Adams (Fr., Aurora, Ill./Aurora Central Catholic) came off the bench to tally 12 points, and Rogers added 10 while Drennan hauled in nine rebounds.

Kent Raymond paced Wheaton with 29 points.

The top-seeded Thunder will host fourth-seeded North Central at 8 p.m. on Friday.