Pulling away in the second half as its offensive attack reached near-peak efficiency, the North Central College men's basketball team secured a historic victory at Gregory Arena Tuesday evening, defeating Albion College, 92-78.

The Cardinals' win is the 500th of head coach Todd Raridon's career, making him one of 13 active NCAA Division III coaches with at least 500 career wins. Raridon ranks 45th in the history of college basketball in wins among coaches with at least 10 seasons of experience at the Division III level.

Integral to the Cardinals' success Tuesday was the play of Connor Raridon, who finished with 36 points on 12 of 15 shooting from the floor and 12 of 13 accuracy from the free-throw line. Raridon's scoring total is the highest in a single game by a North Central player since Reid Barringer '10 scored 44 points against Rockford College on Dec. 30, 2009. Raridon also finished with a game-high eight assists, pushing his career total to 205 and moving him into the Cardinals' career top 10 in that category.

North Central (6-4) trailed through most of the first half as the Britons made five of their first seven shots from the floor. Albion owned a 17-9 advantage, its largest of the night, after six minutes of play and stayed in front until successful trips to the free-throw line by Alex Sorenson and Blaise Meredith  gained the Cardinals a brief 25-24 lead. The lead changed hands four times before the teams went into halftime deadlocked at 40-40.

Owning a 45-44 lead early in the second period, the Cardinals embarked on the scoring run that would determine the night's outcome, outscoring Albion, 18-4, over a span of just under seven minutes. Sorenson scored nine points and Raridon put up six to spearhead the rally, during which the Britons were held to 1 for 8 shooting from the floor. The hosts were not threatened from then on, extending their lead to as many as 23 points before the starters left the game.

The Cardinals connected on 19 of 26 shots from the field (73.1 percent) in the second half and wound up shooting a season-high 61.7 percent (29 of 47) for the game while making 28 of a season-high 35 free throws. Sorenson totaled 24 points and a game-high seven rebounds, Matt Cappelletti contributed 11 points, and Aiden Chang tied a single-game school record with five steals.

Corey Wheeler led Albion (1-7) with 19 points and four assists.

North Central is idle until Saturday, Dec. 30, when it hosts Robert Morris University-Chicago (5-7). Tipoff is scheduled for 3:00 p.m.