PICTURED: Juwan Henry

Call it a sense of reality or a wake-up call but whatever it was it helped lead North Park to a season sweep over Carthage College Wednesday night in a 93-86 overtime victory over the Red Men in CCIW action.

After the visitors closed the gap to 61-58 on a three-point play with 9:16 left in the contest, North Park forced four-straight turnovers with pressure defense which equated to a 10-4 scoring run capped off by Juwan Henry's steal and lay-up five minutes later.

Carthage responded with a 10-4 spurt of its own to close out the remaining 1:17 to force the extra time, but Henry carried the team on his back as he scored 21 in the second half and six in the OT as part of a career-high 47-point performance on 15 of 29 shooting.

Henry's offensive outburst tied with Mike Barach from the 1987 season for second all-time in a single game and he finished only seven points shy of tying the school record of 54 set by Jack Ecker against Carthage Feb. 23, 1995.

Henry's soft touch and explosiveness to the basket in the first half led to 20 points and a 44-30 North Park advantage. NP forced 11 first half turnovers, seven which came off steals and they generated 14 points off the mistakes.

To their credit the Red Men kept the game close throughout the second half and they even held a one-point lead at 52-51 after they capped off an 18-5 scoring run with a three-point play. Five different players finished in double-figure scoring led by 19 points from Brad Kruse for Carthage.

Sophomore Jordan Robinson added nine points on 4 of 8 shooting for the Vikings before unfortunately fouling out in 17 minutes of play while both T.J. Cobbs and Darius Brown each had eight points. Both Cobbs and Michael Hutchinson had three steals each while Hutchinson grabbed eight rebounds.

North Park (13-6, 5-3) returns to action Saturday night when it travels to Rock Island for a 7 p.m. contest with Augustana College.