Forever fighting uphill throughout a second half in which its opponent seemed to have all the answers, the North Central College men's basketball team summoned a rally in the final seconds of play to snatch a 70-69 victory from the clutches of defeat over Carthage College at Gregory Arena Wednesday.
The win clinches the Cardinals' first outright College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) regular-season championship since 2012 and the seventh in their history. With a perfect 8-0 record in CCIW home games, North Central (20-4, 13-2 CCIW) also achieves its seventh 20-win season.
After a first half which saw 10 lead changes, the second period saw Carthage (15-9, 7-8) pull ahead by as many as 11 points. The Red Men turned to senior guard Crishawn Cook for 10 straight points in a three-minute stretch that left the score at 55-44 with 9:28 to play. North Central cut its deficit to 57-54 following an 8-0 run featuring a three-pointer by Aiden Chang and a steal and dunk by Blaise Meredith, but Carthage got a backdoor layup by Filip Bulatovic and three free throws from Kienan Baltimore to stay a step ahead.
With his team facing a 68-62 disadvantage, Chang buried a contested three from the left wing to halve the deficit with 14 seconds remaining. Cook made one of two free throws on the other end, after which Chang was fouled on a three-point attempt with 4.3 seconds on the clock. Chang made all three charity shots to leave the hosts trailing by a single point.
To stop the clock, the Cardinals fouled Baltimore, who missed the front end of a one-and-bonus at the free-throw line. The ball was rebounded by Cappelletti and North Central called a timeout with 3.0 seconds left. A long inbound pass was intercepted by Cook, who was then called for traveling with 1.9 seconds to go.
Attempting to collect the ball for a buzzer-beating shot, Cappelletti was fouled with just 0.9 seconds left, and the senior sank both free throws to give the Cardinals their first lead since late in the first half. North Central made 14 of 15 free throws in the second period, including its final 11 in a row.
Chang led the Cardinals in scoring with a season-high 16 points after going 3 for 3 from three-point range and 5 for 5 at the line for 14 points in the second half. Cappelletti and Connor Raridon each put up 14 points and Matt Helwig scored 10. Cappelletti and Raridon also shared the team lead in rebounds with eight apiece, and Raridon also handed out a team-high six assists.
Baltimore led all scorers with 20 points, as Bulatovic put up 15 and Cook totaled 14 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.
North Central closes out the regular sseason on Saturday at Wheaton College (15-9, 9-6). Tipoff at King Arena is set for 7:00 p.m.