A slow start to the game was too much for the Millikin men's basketball team to overcome losing a College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) contest to North Central College 71-54 on January 10 at the Griswold Center in Decatur, Illinois.

          North Central started the game hot and the Big Blue were ice cold allowing the Cardinals to open the game with a 25-2 run over the first seven minutes.  The Big Blue never gave up and fought its way back to 29-21 with 2:29 left in the first half.  The Cardinals would go to the locker room at halftime up 35-25.

          Millikin kept battling in the second half and pulled to within four at 37-33 with 16:31 left in the game.  An Alex Sorenson basket pushed the North Central lead back to six points, but Elijah Henry answered for Millikin to make it 39-35 with 15:51 to play.

The Big Blue spent too much energy trying to climb back in the game and the Cardinal found its second wind going on a 21-7 run over the next eight minutes to pull away 60-42.  The Cardinal run was fuel by some hot three-point shooting with Mike Pollock and Aiden Chang each hitting two threes during the run.  Over a nine-minute span in the second half, the Cardinals made five straight three-pointers.

          Millikin shot 41 percent for the game from the field with the Cardinals connecting on 46 percent.  Millikin was 7-15 (47 percent) from three point range while North Central went 10-29 (35 percent).  Turnovers were again a problem for Millikin committing 20 compared to only nine for North Central.  Millikin won the rebounding battle 32-28.

          Levi Laws led Millikin with 14 points and three assists. Henry had 12 points and a team high seven rebounds.  Zach Fisher had 11 points and three rebounds. 

          Erwin Henry led North Central with 16 points.  Alex Sorenson had 14 points and seven rebounds.

          Millikin is now 8-7, 1-5 while North Central improves to 10-4, 4-2.

          The Big Blue have an off weekend before traveling to Illinois Wesleyan on January 17.