A career day from freshman forward Joe Biko wasn't enough to push North Park past visiting Carthage College in the Vikings' CCIW home opener Wednesday night.

Marlon Senior tallied a game-high 20 points, and Kevin Sykes, Jr. added 19 as the Red Men held on for a 76-72 victory over NP, improving their record to 8-5 on the season.

Biko meanwhile nearly didn't miss for North Park as he knocked down 8 of his 9 shots, including a pair of three-pointers in helping the hosts build an 11-point lead at 21-10 with 12:19 left in the first half. North Park led 46-40 going into halftime after a lay-up from Biko, but Carthage started the second half strong. An 11-2 spurt, sparked by a Senior lay-up, put the Red Men in front 51-48. They later pushed their advantage to 12 points at the 12:26 mark after Senior buried a three-pointer, his third and final trey of the night, but North Park methodically worked its way back into the game. After Carthage made it a 68-56 affair with 8:16 left, the Vikings used an 11-0 scoring run of their own to trim the deficit to 68-67 after a lay-up from senior Aaron Weaver with 3:32 to go. A pair of free throws from Sykes pushed Carthage's lead back to three at 73-70, but again North Park responded with a Biko lay-up cutting the deficit to one. It wasn't until an unfortunate missed three-pointer from junior Garrett Gatz from the left wing that the Red Men sealed off the win. Two free throws from Senior with 14 seconds left gave the visitors their second victory in the last three games.

Freshman Juwan Henry led the Vikings with 20 points on 8 of 14 shooting, while Weaver was the only other Viking in double-figure scoring with 16.

North Park (3-10, 0-2) returns to action this Saturday night when it hosts Illinois Wesleyan University, as part of a doubleheader with the women's basketball team, at 7 p.m.