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Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302

Box Score

Jan. 30, 2010 - The North Central College men's basketball team made it a clean sweep of this week's College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin games on Saturday, posting a 60-58 victory over Wheaton College at Gregory Arena.

The Cardinals started strong and led throughout the contest, defending its home court against the Thunder for the sixth consecutive year.

Reid Barringer led the Cardinals' opening charge, scoring 11 points on 4 of 4 shooting in a 13-2 game-opening run. Wheaton circled the wagons and scored nine straight points to get back into the game, though North Central scored six of the next nine points to maintain the lead.

Leading, 19-16, with just over seven minutes left in the opening half, the Cardinals got a putback from Jon Knapczyk which kickstarted an 18-3 scoring run that spanned the next five minutes and opened up a 37-19 advantage. Wheaton sank five free throws before the period ended and headed into the locker room behind, 37-24.

The Thunder (13-6, 5-3 CCIW) went to work chipping away at North Central's advantage as soon as play resumed, and pulled to within four points (41-37) following a three-pointer by David Eseke. Wheaton got no closer until 6:36 remained, when Ben Panner's three left the visitors trailing by a 51-48 count.

The Cardinals, however, held Wheaton scoreless for the next four minutes while getting buckets inside from Brian Evans and David Twyman to lead by a 55-48 count before Panner ended the drought with a jumper.

Evans grabbed a rebound and scored inside with 1:46 to play, and Wheaton countered with two free throws from Andrew Jahns and a three-point play by Panner. The Thunder trailed, 57-55, with 58 seconds left.

The Cardinals ran the shot clock down on the next possession and Evans found Knapczyk underneath the basket for a layup attempt. The shot was off the mark, but Knapczyk was fouled and sank both free throws to double the home team's lead with 30 seconds on the clock.

Wheaton's John Shackleford converted a putback with 15 seconds to go. Derek Raridon was fouled and made the trip to the charity stripe. The freshman made the first shot, but missed the second, and Knapczyk intentionally fouled Panner to prevent a three-point attempt.

Panner also knocked down the first of the two offerings, then missed the second in the hopes of an offensive rebound and a game-tying basket. Twyman, however, collected the errant shot and capped off the win.

Twyman finished with 21 points, eight rebounds and three steals, while Barringer totaled 16 points and Raridon tallied 12. Evans tied a career high with 12 rebounds and Knapczyk finished with five assists.

Panner scored 21 points for the Thunder, which also got 12 points from Tim McCrary.

North Central (10-9, 3-5 CCIW) travels to Illinois Wesleyan University (15-4, 6-2) on Wednesday. Tipoff at the Shirk Center is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.