ELMHURST, Ill. – The Elmhurst University men's basketball team outscored North Central College 42-24 in the second half to pull away for an 86-67 win at R.A. Faganel Hall.

The win was the Bluejays' fourth consecutive CCIW victory. 

Elmhurst (16-5/8-4 CCIW), ranked 21st in the latest D3hoops.com poll, and North Central (13-7/8-4 CCIW) went back-and-forth in the opening half, exchanging leads 10 times with the score being knotted four times. Both teams bombed 21 3-point attempts in the opening half. North Central connected on 10 while Elmhurst hit on six. Combined, the two teams attempted 69 field goals in the opening half with 42 coming from 3-point distance. Elmhurst held a slim 44-43 lead at the half.

The Bluejays took over in the second half. Leading by one, Elmhurst used an 8-0 run keyed by 3-pointers from Jake Rhode and Ocean Johnson to push their lead up to nine points (56-47) and force the Cardinals to burn a timeout. North Central trimmed the deficit down to four with 13:44 left, but the Bluejays answered back with an 11-0 run sparked by three straight 3-pointers from Rhode. The Cardinals would come no closer than 12 points for the remainder of the game as Elmhurst led by as many as 20 points before closing out the game with a 19-point victory.

Rhode led Elmhurst with 18 points, scoring 15 in the second half. He finished 6-of-12 from downtown and added five assists in the victory. Wesley Hooker added 16 points, seven rebounds and four steals, scoring 13 in the opening half of action. Lavon Thomas added a double-double of 14 points and 12 rebounds while Johnson finished with 10 points and eight rebounds. Jay Militello added nine points and two assists while Jonathan Zapinski came off the bench to total eight points, six rebounds and three assists.

Elmhurst finished the game shooting 44.9 percent (31-of-69) from the floor, including 34.3 percent (12-of-35) from beyond the arc. Elmhurst dominated the game on the glass, outrebounding North Central 46-25.

Blaise Meredith paced the Cardinals in the loss, pouring in a game-high 25 points and adding eight rebounds. Meredith shot 9-of-16 from the floor, including 6-of-11 from downtown. Matt Helwig finished with 14 points and Ethan Helwig scored 12 for the Cardinals.

North Central finished the game hitting 41.7 percent of its shots (25-of-60), including 41.9 percent (13-of-31) from downtown. After shooting 21 3-pointers in the opening half, North Central shot just 3-of-10 from beyond the arc in the second half.

Elmhurst travels to Carroll University on Monday, February 7.