A stout defensive performance and a dominant second half led to a big win for the North Central College men's basketball team on Saturday evening, as the top-ranked Cardinals remained unbeaten and treated a capacity crowd to a 69-55 victory over Wheaton College at Gregory Arena.

The Cardinals (13-0, 2-0 CCIW) established a new school record for consecutive wins to begin a season, erasing a three-point halftime deficit and putting the game away with a 22-6 second-half surge.

Wheaton led throughout most of a closely-contested first half, despite not pulling ahead by more than six points. The Cardinals bounced back to tie the score at 23-23 with 3:19 on the clock following a jumper by Derek Raridon and a layup fromJack Burchett, but the Thunder responded with a layup by Nathan Haynes and a three-pointer by Michael Kvam to pull back in front. Landon Gamble closed the half with an inside basket to narrow the Cardinals' deficit to 28-25.

The hosts took the lead for the first time in the second half on Raridon's jumper with 15:59 to play, and Vince Kmiec buried a three-pointer on the fast break before Wheaton's Joel Smith responded with a triple of his own to leave the score at 35-34 in North Central's favor.

The Cardinals embarked on the game's definitive run from that point, scoring the next nine points and allowing Wheaton to score just six points in the next 10 minutes of play. By the time Kmiec's three-pointer fell through the net with 3:36 to play, North Central had its largest lead at 57-40. Aaron Tiknis put up nine points in the rally.

Despite Wheaton's attempts to get back into the game with full-court pressure, the Cardinals' lead never shrank below nine points down the stretch as North Central improved to 7-0 in home games this season.

Kmiec led all scorers, tying a career-high with 20 points, and recorded three steals to move into 10th place all-time at North Central (79). Kmiec put up 15 of his points in the second half. Tiknis, meanwhile, added 19 points and a team-high three blocked shots while Gamble totaled 14 points and 11 rebounds for his third double-double of the season and Brandon Williams handed out a season-high six assists. Raridon's seven points made him the fifth North Central player to score more than 1,400 points in his career (1,406).

Wheaton guard Tyler Peters entered the game as the CCIW's leading scorer at nearly 21 points per game. Guarded primarily by Raridon, the junior was harassed into 5 of 16 shooting and wound up with 14 points and five assists. Junior forward Nathan Haynes paced the Thunder (10-3, 0-2 CCIW) with 15 points, 16 rebounds, five steals and two blocked shots. 

North Central travels to face Carthage College (5-8, 0-2) on Wednesday. Tipoff at Tarble Arena is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.