Playing through significant foul trouble and emerging with a strong run of play in the second half, the North Central College men's basketball team improved to 6-0 at home on Tuesday night by winning an intensely physical battle with the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Pioneers, 73-64, at Gregory Arena.

The fourth-ranked Cardinals are now 8-0 for the second time in the program's history and have now won nine straight home games dating back to last season.

After playing to a 14-14 standstill in the first 13 minutes, the Cardinals got a pair of jumpers from Derek Raridon and a three-pointer and fast-break layup from Aaron Tiknis to fuel a 9-2 run that gave the hosts a 23-16 edge with 4:55 left in the opening half. Platteville (7-3) narrowed the gap to a single point at 26-25, but North Central held the Pioneers scoreless for the final 2:34 and got two free throws from Raridon to head into halftime ahead, 28-25.

The Cardinals owned a 31-27 advantage early in the second period before putting together an 11-5 run, capped off by a Vince Kmiec three-pointer, to take their first double-digit lead at 42-32. North Central maintained its lead over the next six minutes before Pat Rourke sank a pair of free throws and fed Kmiec for a layup after a steal to fuel a 7-0 run that gave the hosts their biggest lead at 63-46 with five minutes left.

North Central wound up shooting 59.1 percent from the floor (13-22) in the final 20 minutes while making 16 of 22 free throws. Raridon finished with 20 points on 7 of 10 shooting, while Kmiec totaled 14 points and Tiknis added 12 points and seven rebounds. 

Chas Cross and Rob Stallion scored 20 points apiece for Platteville.

The Cardinals travel to Lisle to face Benedictine University (2-7) on Saturday. Tipoff at the Rice Center is scheduled for 4:15 p.m.