The North Central College men's basketball team moved one step closer to securing its first outright College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin Championship since 1990 on Tuesday, completing a season sweep of Illinois Wesleyan University with a 80-73 victory over the Titans at the Shirk Center.

The Cardinals (16-6, 10-1 CCIW) have won seven straight games and can clinch the CCIW title with a win over Wheaton College on Saturday. North Central's only conference loss was a 66-64 double-overtime setback against the Thunder on Jan. 14.

North Central fell behind the Titans early, allowing the game's first 12 points over the first four minutes of play. A three-pointer by Aaron Tiknis got the Cardinals on the board and started the visitors on a 13-3 surge that narrowed the gap to two points at 15-13. CJ Goldthree contributed the final eight points of the rally, sinking a jumper in the lane and a pair of three-pointers in just over a minute.

The Cardinals tied the score on four occasions within six minutes near the end of the first half, the last of which left the score knotted at 32-32 with 1:12 before halftime. Goldthree made two free throws to put North Central in front, and Tiknis was fouled pulling down a rebound and sank two more charity shots to send the Cardinals into the locker room with a 36-32 advantage at the break.

North Central outscored the Titans, 11-4, over the first four minutes of the second period and took its first double-digit lead at 47-36 on a three-pointer by Vince Kmiec with 15:52 to play. Illinois Wesleyan (16-6, 7-4 CCIW) bounced back and tied the game at 60-60 on Andrew Ziemnik's three-pointer with 7:17 to play. 

Landon Gamble's two free throws briefly gave the Cardinals the lead, but Eliud Gonzalez and Victor Davis sank consecutive three-pointers to stake IWU to a 66-62 edge with 6:01 left. Gamble scored two straight buckets to tie the score at 66-66, and Goldthree's free throw with 4:28 to go nudged North Central in front by a single point.

Stephen Rudnicki's two free throws gave the Titans a 68-67 edge, though Gamble scored on a jumper and fed Tiknis for a layup to move North Central ahead, 71-68. Davis completed a three-point play to tie the score at 71-71, but Tiknis found the net from three-point range with just under a minute left to give the Cardinals the lead once again at 74-71. 

Rudnicki made two more free throws to close the Titans' deficit to a single point, but Kevin Gillespie beat the IWU full-court press and found TIknis for an uncontested layup with 24 seconds to play. Rudnicki came up empty on a layup attempt and Derek Raridon claimed the rebound, getting fouled and knocking down two free throws to extend the lead to 78-73 with 11 seconds left.

Kmiec stole the ball on the ensuing possession and made two free throws of his own, stretching the Cardinals' advantage to seven points and securing the victory for the Cardinals. 

TIknis led all scorers with a career-high 23 points, making 8 of 11 field goals and 4 of 6 three-point attempts. He also finished with eight rebounds and three blocked shots. Gamble put up 16 points and nine rebounds, while Raridon and Goldthree each scored 15 points. The Cardinals made 27 of 47 field-goal attempts (57.4 percent), including a 62.5 percent clip (15-24) in the second half.

Davis led the Titans with 19 points on 8 of 12 shooting, while Jordan Zimmer added 14 points and Gonzalez and John Koschnitzky each put up 11. 

The Cardinals host Wheaton on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Gregory Arena. The game will be broadcast live on Naperville Community Televison, Channel 17 andnctv17.com.