The North Central College men's basketball team improved to 5-0 at home and extended its perfect start to seven games on Saturday, surging away in the second half and defeating the Simpson College Storm, 65-46, at Gregory Arena.

The fourth-ranked Cardinals (7-0) did not allow Simpson to get untracked offensively all evening long, limiting the Storm to 30.6 percent shooting (15-49) and putting the game away with a 22-3 run in the first nine minutes of the second half. North Central collected 17 offensive rebounds which led to 23 second-chance points.

Leading, 10-9, midway through the first half, the Cardinals got the night's first extended scoring run started with a pair of inside baskets from Landon Gamble. The hosts wound up scoring 11 straight points, getting a three-pointer and a layup from Aaron Tiknis and a layup from Vince Kmiec, all coming in transition, in an 82-second span. Simpson (3-5) whittled the lead back down to five points and headed into halftime behind, 27-19.

The Cardinals owned a 32-22 advantage with 18:19 on the clock in the second half, at which point they embarked on a 17-0 run which effectively put Simpson out of contention. North Central got a pair of three-point plays from Gamble and another from Raridon during the decisive rally, which spanned nearly seven minutes and left the home team with a 49-22 lead with 11:46 to play.

North Central led by as many as 31 points down the stretch and held its opposition below 50 points for the fourth time in seven games this season. The Cardinals owned a 40-34 rebounding edge and scored 21 points off of 16 Simpson turnovers.

Gamble led all scorers with 21 points, 15 of which came in the second half, and collected nine rebounds, while Raridon scored 16 points. Tiknis posted game highs of 10 rebounds and two blocked shots while sharing the team lead in assists (4) with Brandon Williams. 

Elijah Knox led the Storm with 16 points and four assists, while Olu Rotibi put up nine points and seven boards.

The Cardinals host the University of Wisconsin-Platteville (7-2) on Tuesday, with tipoff scheduled for 7:30 p.m.