Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302
Box Score
ROCK ISLAND, Ill. (Jan. 17, 2022) - Continuing to make itself at home in one of the nation's most inhospitable destinations for visiting teams, the North Central College men's basketball team won a key College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) road game Monday at the Carver Center, making a series of clutch plays down the stretch to defeat Augustana College, 86-82.
The victory for the Cardinals (8-5, 3-2 CCIW), the third in their last four trips to Rock Island, was historic in nature as senior Blaise Meredith became the program's 29th 1,000-point scorer. Needing six points to reach the milestone heading into the game, Meredith put himself over the mark with a three-pointer with 16:59 to play in the second half and finished with 12 points to push his career total to 1,006.
North Central threatened to run away with the game early, scoring the first seven points of the evening and leading by as many as 11. The Vikings (8-8, 3-4) put together a 13-4 run to pull in front, 37-34, after a three-point play by Matt Hawkins and owned a 43-39 advantage by halftime.
The hosts stretched their lead to as many as eight points early in the second half before five straight points from Ethan Helwig and a putback by Kameron Kaba-Williams closed the gap to 55-54 with 12:12 to play. The Cardinals tied the score twice before Helwig sank a jumper and a three-pointer in a 30-second span to put the visitors in front, 71-68, with 5:05 left.
North Central maintained a slim 77-76 lead with under a minute to play when Matthew Helwig rose up from the left wing and buried a three-pointer to put the Cardinals up, 80-76. Matthew Helwig made four straight free throws and Meredith connected on a pair in the final 30 seconds to help put the contest away.
Matthew Helwig led all scorers with 33 points and grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds. His perfect 10 for 10 effort at the free-throw line extended his current streak of consecutive made charity shots to 56, the longest current active streak in all of college basketball. Ethan Helwig put up 21 points and a team-best six assists.
Dan Carr led the Vikings with 20 points and 14 rebounds, while Tyler Knuth and Carter Duwa added 14 and 13 points, respectively, off the bench.
North Central travels to face Carroll University (5-11, 1-6) Wednesday. Tipoff at Van Male Field House is set for 7:00 p.m. Visiting spectators are not permitted. Click HERE for live coverage options.
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