PICTURED: Colin Lake
North Park overcame a blistering start from a hot-shooting perimeter Coe College squad to earn a 92-90 victory over the Kohawks in non-conference action Saturday afternoon.
Junior Juwan Henry came off the bench to score a season-high 33 points, including the go-ahead basket with three seconds left to give NP its fourth win of the season.
Coe wasted little time getting things started from the perimeter as it connected on seven of its first eight three-pointers to stake an 18-8 lead five minutes in, but the Vikings overcame the deficit and used a 20-8 scoring run fueled by a three-point play from Henry, a steal and basket from T.J. Cobbs and a pair of three-pointers from Michael Hutchinson to pull ahead 28-26 with 10:19 left in the half.
A jumper from Henry just before the halftime buzzer put NP ahead 48-46 at the break, but Coe quickly erased the brief deficit out of the gate in the second half with a 16-2 spurt to move ahead 62-50 with 15:56 remaining. The Vikings countered with a 15-2 clip highlighted by a transitional three-pointer from Colin Lake to reclaim a 65-64 advantage, but again Coe responded to move ahead 75-71 four minutes later. From there, both teams found themselves in a deadlock three different times before Henry came up with the game-winner in the waning seconds.
North Park forced 11 turnovers, six of which came off steals, to score 15 points off the mistakes. The Vikings also dominated the inside game in the second half with 23 points in the paint and they recorded 11 of their 13 transitional fast break points in the second half. Sophomore Jordan Robinson came off the bench to score 22 points on 10 of 16 shooting while both Hutchinson and Cobbs added eight points each. Coe used a balanced attack from five different double-figure scorers led by 19 points from Lincoln Vorba.
North Park (4-2) returns to action Monday night when it hosts Albion College for a 7 p.m. contest.
