The North Central College men's basketball team hung on to beat the Benedictine University Eagles, 61-55, and improve to 9-0 on Saturday afternoon at Benedictine. 
 
Leading 33-26 at the break, North Central pushed their lead to 37-26 on a jump shot by Jack Burchett, but it was the largest lead the Cardinals had the rest of the game as the Eagles cut the lead to 44-38 with 12:02 remaining.   Both teams went ice cold as the score remained the same for the next 4:40. 
 
Baskets by Raphael Oglesby and Jamison Montgomery cut the lead to just two points, 44-42, with 7:11 left in the second frame.  The Cardinals built their lead back to 10, 53-43, on two free throws by Derek Raridon with 3:14 to go. 
 
The Eagles outscored the Cardinals 12-8 down the stretch, but Pat Rourke hit four clutch free throws with under a minute remaining and Vince Kmiec added two more to lift the Cardinals on the road. 
 
The Cardinals grabbed the lead for good, 27-26, on a bucket by Raridon that sparked a 12-0 run by North Central that covered the closing minutes of the first half and carried over into the opening minutes of the second. 
 
Benedictine led by as many as seven points on two occasions in the first half. An Alex Edmondson three-pointer gave the Eagles a 18-11 lead with 10:14 remaining in the first half.  North Central scored five of the next eight points to cut the lead to four, but two free throws by Oglesby pushed the lead back to 23-16. 
 
Four Cardinals reached double figures with Aaron Tiknis leading the way with 14 points to go with a team-high 10 rebounds.  Kmiec had 13, while Raridon added 12, and Rourke chipped in 10.  Point guard Brandon Williams scored just two points, but collected nine rebounds in the victory. 
 
The Cardinals return to action on Friday Dec. 28 when they head to Las Vegas, Nev. to play No. 11 Ramapo College in the D3hoops.com Classic.