Contact: Drew Sauer, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5324

Box Score

Dec. 8, 2018 – Playing from behind nearly the entire contest, the North Central College women's basketball team mounted a late comeback to force overtime against College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) foe North Park University on Saturday, but a pair of costly fouls in the closing second allowed the Vikings to steal away a 83-82 victory.

Trailing 74-68 with just 1:25 remaining in the fourth quarter, Allison Pearson's third three-pointer of the game cut the lead to three.  Following a missed three on the Vikings next possession, Tyonne Howard layed one in off a nice feed from Pearson, pulling the Cardinals to within one of the lead with 32 seconds to play.

After Lauryn Alba-Garner made one of two free throw attempts, Lyndsay Brennan knocked down a clutch 15 footer with nine seconds on the clock, tying the score 75-75.  The Vikings had two looks on their final possession but came up short, sending the game into overtime for the first time this season.

The two teams traded free throws early in overtime, before back-to-back layups from Howard and Natali Dimitrova gave North Central its largest lead of the contest 82-78 with just 1:33 to play.

Despite not recording a field goal in overtime, the Vikings made a comeback from the free throw line as Matti Zander knocked down a pair on North Park's following possession, before a costly turnover and another Cardinal foul allowed Zakiya Newsome to drain a pair, suddenly knotting the score 82-82 with 36 seconds remaining.

Following a timeout, North Central had a chance with under 10 seconds to play, but came up short on the three-point attempt and in the subsequent rebound attempt committed a devastating foul, sending Kayla Patterson to the line with six seconds to play. 

Patterson hit the first of two free throws to give North Park (5-4, 2-1 CCIW) a 83-82 lead, while Howard's last second heave from half court fell just off the front of the rim as time expired.

Dimitrova led all players with a career-high 26 points before fouling out late in overtime, also grabbing 10 rebounds to record her second career double-double.  Howard turned in arguably her best all-around performance of her young career, finishing with 17 points of 6-of-8 shooting from the field, also grabbing six rebounds while dishing out seven assists in 43 minutes of action.

Alanna Newsome also finished in double figures with 11 points, while Brennan tied her career-high with nine rebounds to go along with seven points.  Pearson added nine points off the bench on a perfect 3-of-3 shooting from three-point range.

Four Vikings' finished in double-figures, led by 17 points from Alba-Garner, while Zander added 14 and eight rebounds.  Sinead Molloy also added 13 points and eight rebounds, while the Cardinal defense held North Park's season leading scorer Jayla Johnson to just six points on the evening.

North Central (2-5, 1-2 CCIW) will be road warriors for the remainder of the 2018 calendar year, traveling to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point on Tuesday, Dec. 11 with tip-off at 7 p.m. Links to live in-game coverage are available HERE.