The Senior Night celebration nearly ended with a huge exclamation point for the North Central College women's basketball team on Saturday before a buzzer-beating North Park University jump shot condemned the Cardinals to a 91-89 loss at Gregory Arena.

The loss drops North Central (12-12, 5-8 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin) into a three-way tie with North Park and Elmhurst College for the final qualifying spot in next weekend's CCIW Tournament with one game remaining in the regular season.

Trailing, 86-82, with under two minutes remaining, the Cardinals got a three-pointer from Kelsey Cooling to narrow the gap to a single point, then took the lead, 88-86, on Larynn Shumaker's three-point play with 30 seconds left. North Park (14-10, 5-8) got a three-pointer in the left corner from Sarah Peterson to regain the lead on the next trip down the floor.

North Central's Sophie Newson drove the lane and drew a foul with nine seconds to play, making one of two free throws to knot the score at 89-89. After taking a timeout, the Vikings held for the final shot, which wound up being Kamauria Acree's left-handed layup. The shot fell through the net with just one-tenth of a second on the clock, not allowing North Central enough time to get off another shot.

The contest featured nine ties and 13 lead changes in all. The Cardinals trailed throughout most of the first half but rallied to briefly hold the lead before heading into halftime with a 42-40 deficit. North Park shot 59.5 percent (22 of 37) in the second half but was never able to extend its lead to more than six points as North Central countered with an 8 of 14 effort (57.1 percent) from three-point range after the break.

The Cardinals sank 15 of 35 three-pointers (42.9 percent) on the evening and were led in scoring by Newson and Larynn Shumaker, each of whom scored 14 points, while Kimberly Wilson added 11. Newson also grabbed seven rebounds and Bobbi Johns totaled five assists.

Peterson stuffed the stat sheet for North Park with 31 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists, five steals and five blocks. Nicole Kruckman put up 20 points and 10 rebounds, while Acree also added 20 points. 

The Cardinals travel to face Millikin University (8-15, 3-10) on Tuesday. Tipoff at the Griswold Center is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.