Feb 28, 2015
In a back-and-forth battle in front of an electric atmosphere inside King Arena, the North Central College women's basketball team fell just short in its bid for the program's first College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) Tournament Championship, falling 92-80 to host Wheaton College.
Both teams squandered double-digit leads Saturday evening, as Wheaton jumped out to a 14-point lead just over five minutes into the contest, but the Cardinals battled back and outscored the Thunder, 41-18 over the final 15 minutes of the half to take a 46-37 lead into halftime.
Coming out of the break, the Cardinals gradually increased its lead to 56-44 as Tess Godhardt put home back-to-back lay-ins while Corrine Rowe nailed a three-pointer on the next possession to give North Central its largest lead of the contest with 16:14 to play.
The game's pivotal break came over the next three and a half minutes as Wheaton rattled off a 16-0 run, while the Cardinal offense went cold on 0-for-9 shooting during that span.
Wheaton extended its lead to 15-points, capping off its 24-6 run at the 5:52 mark to hold an 81-66 advantage.
North Central (22-5) fought tough over the final five minutes, drawing to with six points of the lead down the stretch, but the Thunder lead was too much to handle late.
Godhardt paced the Cardinal offense with 29 points on 13-of-16 shooting from the field and added a team-high nine rebounds. Jamie Cuny also finished in double-figures, chipping in 15 points on 3-of-6 shooting from three. Cuny also recorded two blocked shots on the evening, as her 89 blocks this season move her atop the program's all-time blocks list.
Wheaton's Hannah Considine led all scorers with 33 points and 16 rebounds on 13-of-15 shooting, while Ellie Zeller added 29 points and four steals.
The Thunder (24-3) secure the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championships next weekend, as North Central will look to secure an at-large bid into the 64-team field. Pairings will be released Mon., Mar. 2 at 2:30 (ET) atncaa.com.