1. Ryan Hackman
Men's Basketball team falls to rival Elmhurst
The North Central Men's Basketball team came up on the short end of a defensive minded game
losing to the Elmhurst Blue Jays 66-57 at Gregory Arena. Saturday's loss marks the second
straight home loss for the Cardinals, both at the hands of CCIW opponents, with Wednesday
being Augustana.
Junior Guard Jayme Moten led the way for the Cardinals with 25 points making 8-14 shots from
behind the three-point line, which is a career high. Moten said that the key to becoming a solid
shooter from long range hasn't come by accident. "It's a lot of work in practice, I get up a lot of
shots the coach is really hard on me on my footwork," Moten said. Other than Moten, only one
other player finished in double-digits in scoring and that was Sophomore Guard Brandon White,
who scored 10 points. Besides the 8 three-point field goals from Moten, the entire team made just
one more shot from downtown, that coming from Geoffrey Goodwin.
The game featured 8 ties and 5 lead changes and the game was tied at 51-51 with 4:29 left in
regulation when Bryant Ackerman drilled a three-point field goal giving the Blue Jays the lead for
good.
Head Coach Todd Raridon gave some credit to the Blue Jay's defense in making the Cardinals a
one-dimensional game Saturday night. "I think it was probably a little bit of both, I thought
Elmhurst did a tremendous job with their zone defense," Raridon said. He goes on to say that
rebounding has been a key to the program but mentions in the last two games, consistent
rebounding has been 'bitten', 'void' and 'null.'
Meanwhile, Elmhurst had three players who scored in double figures with Kyle Wuest leading the
way with 23, while the afore mentioned Ackerman and Will Nixon scored 12 points. Elmhurst
struggled shooting from the field making 30.9% of their shots but the Cardinals did not fare much
better, making just 34% of their shots. One of the problems for the home standing Cardinals was
offensive rebounds. Elmhurst had 19 of their 29 rebounds from missed shots and scored 10
second chance points.
After Saturday nights game, both teams are now 13-3 overall and 3-2 in CCIW play. The North
Central Cardinals Men's Basketball team's next game action is on Wednesday night at Carthage
College. The Red Men are 7-8 overall but are 3-2 in CCIW play. The Red Men have won
consecutive CCIW games after winning Saturday night vs. Millikin 80-76.