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

Box Score
 
Feb. 1, 2020 - An early five-minute show of force took all the drama out of the North Central College men's basketball team's matchup with North Park University Saturday evening, as the Cardinals improved to 6-0 at Gregory Arena in 2020 with a 90-66 conquest which completed a season sweep of the Vikings.
 
North Central (16-4, 9-2 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin) opened the game with an 18-2 surge and was never threatened, winning for the 17th time in its last 20 meetings with the Vikings.
 
Matt Cappelletti got the Cardinals' game-opening rally started with the first four points of the contest, including a dunk shortly after tipoff, and would go on to lead all scorers with 21 points on 10 of 14 shooting. North Central made 7 of its first 10 shots to seize control and wound up connecting on 21 of 30 field-goal attempts (70.0 percent) in the first half.
 
North Park (4-16, 2-9 CCIW) was able to narrow the gap to 24-15 with 10:09 to go in the opening period, but the Cardinals responded quickly with a three-pointer by Cappelletti and a steal and layup by Aiden Chang. The hosts got a pair of three-pointers in the final minute of the period from Michael Pollack and Aaron Jones, whose 25-footer just beat the buzzer, to take a 51-30 advantage into halftime.
 
The Vikings never ventured closer than 16 points the rest of the way, and the North Central lead reached as many as 31 points late in the contest. The Cardinals shot 56.5 percent (35 of 62) from the floor on the night, their second-highest of the season, and shot at least 50 percent from the field for the third straight game.
 
Connor Raridon finished with 14 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists for North Central, while Matt Helwig also put up 14 points and Blaise Meredith finished with 11 and Chang established a new career program record by playing in his 113th game. Izaiah Sanders was the Vikings' top scorer with 15 points.
 
The Cardinals host No. 4-ranked Elmhurst College (18-2, 9-2) next Saturday. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m., with Senior Day activities to be conducted prior to game time. Click HERE for live coverage options.

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