Gregory Arena was certainly loud and ready for the North Central men’s basketball team, and they delivered in an entertaining fashion.
Hosting their first NCAA tournament games since 2013, the Cardinals thrived with their home court advantage, cruising to a 77-48 win over Chatham University.
“Our students were awesome,” said Head Coach Todd Raridon. “Players feed off of that … you can just see our kids’ energy level go up.”
A huge second half is what helped North Central really run away with the game. At the half, they trailed 25-24 while shooting 1-13 from three and 32 percent from the field. They then turned the offense way up after that by outscoring Chatham 53-24 in the second half.
“I thought that our defense in the first half was pretty good…we just weren’t scoring at the other end,” said Raridon. “We were able to get some steals and transition baskets. Stuff we have been doing all year.”
The leaders tonight for North Central were Connor Raridon, ‘20, with 18 points and Will Clausel, ‘21, with 14 points. The large margin of victory gave the main squad some rest tonight, but the team will be ready for Loras College tomorrow.
“(Loras) is an excellent basketball team. The deeper you get into this and you get into the second round, everybody’s good,” Raridon said.
North Central will play Loras College tomorrow at 7 p.m. in Gregory Arena in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
