If there's one word that could sum up North Park's success in the second half of the CCIW men's basketball season thus far its confidence.

The Vikings have withstood the pressures of national rankings and height disadvantages among other naysaying discussion and have proven they're a team to be reckoned with.

North Park added another victory to its résumé, a 71-68 triumph over Wheaton College Wednesday night, NP's first victory over the Thunder since January 16, 2010, and moved two games closer to a qualifying spot for the conference postseason tournament.

To their credit Wheaton kept things close throughout the contest, but North Park nearly led wire-to-wire, building as much as an 11-point advantage late in the second half.

Three different Vikings finished in double-figure scoring led by reigning CCIW Player of the Week Juwan Henry, who finished with a team-high 22 points. Freshman Jordan Robinson added 19 points and Colin Lake tallied 10, his fourth-straight double-digit performance.

NP started the game strong as it opened up an 11-6 advantage and later a 21-14 edge after a lay-up from Lake with 12:23 remaining. Wheaton did fight back to take a brief 25-24 advantage, but NP used a 12-8 scoring run to close out the final 4:10 to move ahead 36-33 at halftime.

After three ties in the first 12 minutes of the second half, Wheaton claimed a 56-53 lead on a three-pointer from Brayden Teuscher with 8:06 left, but the Thunder never saw the lead thereafter. North Park responded with a 9-0 spurt to command a 67-56 lead on a putback from Henry and the Vikings held on for their 13th win of the season.

North Park forced 12 Thunder turnovers, creating six off steals and scored 14 points off the miscues. The Vikings also had a 14-11 rebounding advantage on the offensive glass and out-scored Wheaton 8-3 in second half second chance points. Teuscher led Wheaton with a game-high 25 points.

North Park (13-8, 4-6) returns to action this Saturday when it travels to Decatur for a 7 p.m. contest with Millikin University.