FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302
Box Score
Dec. 7, 2010 - Benefiting from some hot shooting and a career-high scoring binge by CJ Goldthree, the North Central College men's basketball team cruised to its most decisive win in more than two years on Tuesday, rolling to a 82-44 victory over Lake Forest College (Ill.) at Gregory Arena.
The Cardinals (3-4) continued to see results from their full-court press, scoring 29 points off of 22 Lake Forest turnovers, and knocked down 57.9 percent (11 of 19) of their three-point attempts in the most lopsided win by a North Central team since a 107-68 triumph over MacMurray College (Ill.) on Nov. 21, 2008.
Lake Forest kept pace for the first seven minutes, taking a 9-8 lead after a three-pointer by Nate Bateman before Goldthree knocked down a triple and Jack Burchett made a pair of free throws to propel the Cardinals back in front.
The hosts owned a 21-16 advantage with 7:15 to go in the first half when Goldthree took the contest over, scoring all of North Central's points in an 18-5 run that spanned more than six minutes. The self-financed rally, which included a trio of three-pointers in a span of 55 seconds, expanded the Cardinals' advantage to 18 points, and Derek Raridon banked in a three at the buzzer to give North Central its largest lead of the period at 42-23 as the court cleared for halftime.
The Cardinals opened the second half with a 13-2 run to put any thoughts of a comeback to rest. The lead ballooned to as much as 40 in the final minutes.
Goldthree more than doubled his previous collegiate career high with 29 points, making 12 of 16 shots from the floor and 4 of 5 three-pointers in just 21 minutes of play. Kevin Gillespie turned in 12 points to go with career highs of nine rebounds and seven assists, and Raridon put up 12 points, six rebounds and four assists.
Junior forward Travis Clark led Lake Forest (3-3) with 14 points and nine rebounds, making 7 of 8 shots from the field.
North Central is off until Friday, Dec. 17, when it travels to play the University of Hawaii-Hilo.
