Lady Cardinals win first CCIW game

Jeremy Rushing
Staff Writer

The North Central College women’s basketball team finished a tough season on an extremely high note.

Breaking through for their first conference victory of the season on the final day by stunning Millikin University 76-65 at Gregory Arena.

The week didn’t start out so great for the Lady Cardinals, though.

The Lady Cards traveled through the heavy interstate traffic up to Chicago to take on North Park.

The Vikings held a lead as much as nine in the first half, and went into halftime up 34-29.

North Central fired back in the second half, chipping away to tie the game at 44, then using a 7-0 run to take a 51-44 lead with 8:28 remaining.

After trading baskets for the next few minutes, NCC held a 57-50 lead with just under four minutes remaining.  

That was all the Cardinals could muster offensively though, going 0-4 down the stretch and failing to break a tenacious Viking press.

North Park forced turnovers and made shots to go on an improbable 11-0 run in the final three minutes of the ballgame to seal the 61-57 victory.

For North Central, Larryn Shumaker, ’15, came off the bench to lead the team with 14 points and nine rebounds.

Jenny Swanson, ’13, added 13 while Helen Muleya, ’12, poured in 11.

Center Emily Collins, ’12, finished with 10 points .

Roxanne Jones led North Park with 16 points and nine rebounds.

Saturday was senior day for two of North Central’s starters, as  Collins and Muleya were honored in a ceremony before the game.

Both played like it was their last game in red and white.

The game went back-and- forth in the early going, with Millikin pushing out to a 26-19 lead  with just under seven minutes remaining in the first half.

North Central fired back with a 7-0 run to knot the game up at 26.

Shumaker scored twice in the final 90 seconds of the half to give the Lady Cardinals a 32-30 lead heading into the locker room.

Surging the Cardinals into the half with a two point lead were Shumaker and Callie Rezin, ’15, who combined for 14 points in the first half of play.

North Central looked like a team on a mission in the second half. Quickly turning their 32-30 lead into a 45-34 advantage with 15 minutes to go.

After a minirun by Millikin to cut the lead to 53-46, the Cardinals turned on the afterburners and never lead by less than seven the rest of the way en route to a 76-65 senior day victory.

North Central shot 30-37 from the line in the ballgame, including a 23-30 effort in the second half, and closing the game out with a 9-10 effort in the final two minutes.

Freshman Rezin led the way for North Central, notching 16 points, including a 3-4 effort from beyond-the-arc.

Collins finished her Cardinal career with 14 points, and Muleya went out in grand style, finishing with 11 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists.

Although the Lady Cardinals did not have the best year, this win on the final day of the regular season against a very formidable opponent is the ultimate motivation as they head into the offseason.

This season the Lady Cardinals finished the season with an overall record of 7-18 along with a conference record of 1-13.

With this freshman class turning into sophomores and players like Swanson and Sophie Newson, '13, back for one more season, look for this North Central team to make a lot of noise next season.