CHICAGO, IL - The North Park University Men's Basketball team looked to change a slow start to their season around in a CCIW opener against the visiting North Central Cardinals.

The Cardinals showed the first signs of life when they took a quick 19-10 lead over the Vikings thanks to an onslaught of points in the paint.

With the game seemingly slipping out of grasp, senior Colin Lake picked up a rebound from Matt Mohr and knocked down his first three-pointer of the game. Just seconds later, Mohr picked the Cardinals' pockets and fed the red-hot Colin Lake once more. Lake knocked down another three and the Vikings narrowed the deficit to only three points.

Next, Billy Kirby managed to pick up a blocked shot and kick it out to an open Scott Olsen, who tied the game with a three-pointer of his own.

The Cardinals responded with a three-pointer and a few short shots to reclaim a five point lead. Fighting back from the deficit, Toby Marek battled his way under the rim and had the opportunity for an and-one. Cashing in with a free throw, the Vikings crept within one point yet again.

With two minutes remaining, North Park was still a basket away from taking the lead. Unfortunately, the Cardinals capitalized on a few jumpers and free throws to extend their lead to six at halftime.

A somber tune was played in the early minutes of the first half. The Vikings were only able to muster one basket in four minutes of play, and the Cardinal offense moved the lead to ten. However, another burst of energy came in the form of back-to-back threes from Matt Szuba and the Vikings narrowed the lead once more.

Rinse and repeat. The Cardinals again took a double digit lead, but North Park was immediately on their heels. This time the burst came from Colin Lake, who knocked down another set of back-to-back threes, and went perfect from the free throw line.

These short bursts proved useless, and the North Park Vikings lost 88-71.

Colin Lake continues on his hot streak of scoring, reeling in 28 more points in yesterday's game. Colin was 5-13 from three, a perfect 5-5 from the free throw line and added three assists. Matt Szuba also had a breakout game, scoring 14 points and going 4-5 beyond the arc.

North Park (1-4, 0-1) finishes their home stretch for the month of December. The Vikings return to CCIW play on Wednesday where they travel to Kenosha, WI to take on Carthage College.

Notable Career Mark:

• Colin Lake is now just a basket away from totaling 1,000 career points. He will surely leap past that in his upcoming game.