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

Box Score

Nov. 19, 2010 - The North Central College men's basketball team was unable to get its offense untracked in its season opener on Friday, as the Cardinals were defeated, 61-56, by Bluffton University in the first round of the Holiday Inn Select Tip-Off Tournament at Gregory Arena.

The Cardinals shot shot 37.1 percent (23-62) from the floor and 47.1 percent (8-17) from the free-throw line in the contest and fell victim to a late Bluffton rally after leading for most of the first 30 minutes of play.

Trailing, 12-8, midway through the first half, North Central strung together nine straight points, capped off by a Vince Kmiec three-pointer and a steal and slam dunk by #Landon Gamble, to take a 17-12 advantage with 7:24 on the clock. The Beavers bounced back to knot the score at 17-17, but consecutive baskets by Gamble and Jack Burchett pushed the Cardinals back in front.

The Cardinals owned a 26-23 advantage near the end of the period, but yielded a putback and a layup in the final 34 seconds and headed into the locker room facing a 27-26 halftime deficit. North Central scored six of the first eight points in the second half to pull ahead once again, and stayed in front until Bluffton's Will Pope sank a jumper with 7:51 to play and gave the Beavers a 41-40 lead.

North Central trailed by a 50-47 count late in the contest and came close to forcing a shot clock violation, but the Beavers' Mychal Hill knocked down a desperation three-pointer with 2:32 to play, giving Bluffton its biggest lead to that point. The Cardinals narrowed the gap to three points on two more occasions, but the Beavers made six straight free throws in the final 1:25 to seal the win.

Gamble finished with 12 points to pace North Central, while Derek Raridon added 10 and Brian Evans added 11 rebounds and four assists. Pope came off the bench to lead Bluffton with 14 points and seven rebounds.

The Cardinals will play in Saturday's championship game at 2:30 p.m. against Edgewood College, which was upended by Valley City State University (N.D.), 77-72, in overtime in Saturday's other semifinal. Valley City State and Bluffton will square off in the championship game at 7:30.