Although North Park left Gregory Arena with long faces and heavy hearts, the Vikings still had plenty of positives to pull from Saturday night's setback in Naperville.
NP thoroughly dominated the second half of the season in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, finishing the final eight games with a 6-2 record, which included three victories over nationally-ranked opponents. The Vikings were in prime position to do the same once again to North Central in the season finale, leading for most of the contest, but just came up short in an 82-72 decision.
Sophomore Juwan Henry, who may receive strong consideration for CCIW Player of the Year, finished with a game-high 34 points as he connected on 15 of 22 shots, including a pair of three-pointers. Freshman Colin Lake added nine points and T.J. Cobbs eight as NP ended the year with a 15-10 record.
The Vikings electrified the NPU faithful in attendance when it seized an early 11-2 lead after Lake buried a three-pointer from the left side with 15:38 left in first, and later pushed its advantage to 22-14 after Henry had a steal and a lay-up at the 10:49 mark. But North Central fought its way back to tie the score at 34-all just before halftime. Henry kept NP in control at the break however when he split a pair of defenders and knocked down a shot in the lane to make it a 36-34 contest going into the final 20 minutes.
A solid start to the second half then found the Vikings ahead 56-50 when Michael Hutchinson scored a lay-up with 11:26 remaining, but NCC put together its game winning drive when it pieced together an 8-0 scoring run to nab a 58-56 advantage, a lead it never relinquished. NP did trim it to one shortly after on 1 of 2 free throws from Hutchinson, but the visitors never drew within three thereafter.
North Park forced 13 turnovers, creating five off steals, and scored 17 points off the mistakes. The Vikings 15 victories in the 2014-15 season is the best under third-year head coach Tom Slyder and the most by a Vikings team since the 2010-11 season. NP completed its first winning season since the 2009-10 season and recorded the least amount of losses since the 2007-08 campaign.
