While at home, NCC strived to keep Millikin running on empty. With a collection of losses in the books when competing with NCC, Millikin set out in hopes of gaining a different outcome.
With some aggressive play on both ends of the court, the game appeared to be going in favor of NCC early. For one thing, Millikin picked up five fouls within the first five minutes of the half.
With 6:58 on the game clock, Millikin doubled the number of fouls committed since the initial five minutes of the game while North Central just had four team fouls.
“I felt our post players did some good things defensively by not allowing their bigs to get going,” said senior guard/forward Vince Kmiec. “I also think our ability to get the other team in foul trouble early led to some success on offense for us.”
For one thing, junior forward Jack Burchett was shown to be a beast in the paint with regard to rebounding, gaining, and stealing control of the game. Burchett had six rebounds in the first half.
Defensive pressure was layered thick onto the North Central men’s basketball squad with Millikin applying full-court pressure defense early and often throughout the contest. The Cardinals struggled to mount an offensive front, leaving the Big Blue with a 5 point lead at halftime.
The Cardinals tried to counter this pressure on the defensive end. Doing so charged Millikin’s Tives Gardner to pull up, release and score a 3-point shot early in the second half.
Millikin’s Deavis Johnson also showed a lot of energy when he lunged his 6’7” frame to put a fast break opportunity to good use and lay down a powerful dunk.
“We need to have an identity with this team right now. We’re not sure what our identity is through 14 games,” said head coach Todd Raridon. “I think in the past it has been our toughness and aggressiveness, teams are just playing harder than we are now. We have to get back to what we feel like is our identity.”
With energy like that flowing, Millikin would get ahead on the scoreboard with a lead as big as 12 points. Foul trouble kept Johnson on the sideline while the game approached the 10-minute mark until the final score.
Down the stretch, senior forward/center Landon Gamble had more luck with his shot, converting on five out of his nine field goal attempts. In the second half, Gamble also took his stand as a major force in rebounding as the senior finished with nine.
Senior point guard Brandon Williams helped to usher in a wave of hope by bringing Millikin’s lead down to a 4-point margin.
Williams then grabbed a critical rebound with less than two minutes left on the clock. Much to the Cardinals’ dismay, Gamble lied hurt on the floor elsewhere.
After a brief exit for the sideline, Gamble returned to the game. Following that, Kmiec nailed a deep 3-pointer it. Having some difficulty getting his shot to fall early in the game, Kmiec was able to make it count in this pivotal moment. NCC came to be as close as two points from breaking even.
With 35.2 seconds remaining in the second half and trailing by three at this point, the Cardinals had one chance to get closer into the deficit, but a turnover gave the Big Blue a 63-58 victory.
“Carthage will be just as good if not a better squad than Millikin,” said Kmiec. “Playing at Carthage is one of the toughest games of the year. They have a lot of athletic and talented players that can hurt you offensively. We will need to have a solid defensive effort as well as take care of the ball to have a good chance to win.”
