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

Box Score

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (Jan. 5, 2011) -  A late second-half surge forced overtime and nearly led to a victory for the North Central College men's basketball team on Wednesday, but the Cardinals wound up on the wrong end of a 72-67 decision against the 18th-ranked Illinois Wesleyan University Titans at the Shirk Center in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin opener for both teams.

North Central owned a 12-8 advantage after the first five minutes of play, but the Titans rallied and took an 18-14 lead with 8:54 left in the first half following back-to-back baskets from John Koschnitzky and Travis Rosenkranz.

Leading, 25-24, with 5:03 left before the half, Illinois Wesleyan (10-2, 1-0 CCIW) scored 10 of the next 11 points and ended the first half with a 35-25 advantage. The Titans extended their lead to 41-27 early in the second half before North Central responded with a 12-2 rally, capped off by five straight points from CJ Goldthree, to narrow the gap to 43-39.

IWU got a pair of free throws and a three-pointer from Koschnitzky to build its lead back up to nine points at 48-39, but the Cardinals negated the hosts' progress with two charity tosses by Goldthree and a three-point play by Brian Evans.

Trailing, 60-52, with 4:23 to go, North Central staged an 8-0 rally over the remainder of the second period to force an extra session. Landon Gamble got the surge started with a pair of buckets in the paint, a putback by Evans got the Cardinals within two points with 52 seconds remaining, and Gamble scored at the buzzer off a pass from Evans to knot the score at 60-60.

The Titans scored the first five points of the overtime period, getting two free throws from Koschnitzky and a three-pointer from Rosenkranz, though four straight points from Gamble and two freebies by Derek Raridon gave North Central a 66-65 edge with 2:13 to play.

IWU's Jordan Zimmer, however, drained a three-pointer on the next trip down the floor to put the hosts ahead for good. Koschnitzky made four straight free throws in the final eight seconds to salt away the win for the Titans.

North Central (4-8, 0-1 CCIW) was paced by Gamble, who scored a game-high 22 points. Goldthree put up 12 points and eight rebounds and Evans contributed eight points, 10 rebounds and four assists.

Koschnitzky scored 21 points, making 10 of 10 free throws, for the Titans, while Zimmer tallied 18 points and Rosenkranz scored 10.

North Central returns home to host Wheaton College (10-2, 1-0 CCIW) on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.