A furious second-half comeback negated a subpar first half and extended a winning streak for the North Central College men's basketball team on Saturday, as the Cardinals erased a double-digit deficit on the road and defeated Augustana College, 76-62, at the Carver Center.

The win is the fourth straight for the 11th-ranked Cardinals (20-3, 9-3 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin), who now have 20 wins for the second straight season and the fifth time in the program's history. North Central also locked up a bid to the CCIW Tournament for the third straight year with the victory.

The Cardinals endured a first half full of miscues, as the visitors turned the ball over 12 times which led to 18 points in the opening 20 minutes. Augustana (16-7, 6-6 CCIW) shot 57.7 percent (15-26) from the floor in the first period and led by as many as 16 points before heading into halftime with a 37-24 advantage. North Central's lone bright spot early on was the play of Aaron Tiknis, who put up 13 points on 4 of 7 shooting.

North Central came out firing as soon as play resumed in the second half, first getting three-pointers from Vince Kmiec on three straight possessions. The Vikings built their lead back up to 45-33 before a jumper by Derek Raridon, a putback by Tiknis, and a layup by Landon Gamble off a steal by Raridon narrowed the gap to 45-39 and prompted an Augustana timeout with 14:42 remaining.

The Vikings owned a 53-47 advantage when North Central opened what would be the decisive scoring run of the game, a 14-2 surge which gave the Cardinals their first lead since midway through the opening period. Gamble got the rally started with a three-point play, and Jack Merrithey and Jack Burchett each made a pair of free throws to nudge North Central in front. 

Merrithey's three-pointer with 3:37 to play stretched the Cardinals' lead to 64-57. Augustana's Ben Ryan knocked down a jumper and the Vikings' Mark Roth launched a shot clock-beating three-pointer from the right wing which found the bottom of the net and cut North Central's edge to 64-62 with 2:25 left.

Roth's jumper, however, turned out to be Augustana's final score. Tiknis converted a three-point play on the next trip down the floor, and Kmiec stole a pass out of the low post before Gamble sank another jumper to boost the guests' lead back up to seven points at 69-62. The Cardinals then made 5 of 6 free throws in the final minute before a last-second layup by Kmiec.

North Central wound up outscoring the Vikings, 52-25, in the second half, including a 26-9 run over the final 8:18. The Cardinals shot 60 percent (15-25) from the floor and turned the ball over just twice after halftime, limiting the Vikings to a 7 for 19 shooting effort (36.8 percent).

Tiknis finished with a game-high 21 points, while Merrithey totaled 15 in 15 minutes off the bench after scoring 17 points in 13 previous games this season. Gamble put up 13 points, Kmiec added 11 and Raridon scored 10. Danelius Jurgutis scored 18 points, 14 of which came in the first half, to lead the Vikings.

North Central hosts North Park University (6-17, 1-11) on Saturday. Tipoff at Gregory Arena is scheduled for 7 p.m., with Senior Night activities to be conducted prior to game time.