CHICAGO, Ill. -- North Park Men's Basketball made short work of the Cornell College Rams on Thursday night with a 108-86 win. Five different Vikings scored in double figures including a triple-double for senior guard Kolden Vanlandingham.
The game opened with North Park bounding ahead. After a brief 4-3 Cornell lead, the Vikings ripped off a 12-2 run fueled by turnovers and transition buckets, turning defense into offense immediately. Junior guard Mike Vuckovic, a recent D3hoops.com National Team of the Week honoree, and freshman guard Marquis Vance slashed to the rim, while Vanlandingham orchestrated the break, piling up assists early.
By the midpoint of the first half, North Park had built a double-digit cushion, and they weren't done.
Another burst, a 17-4 stretch spanning just over six minutes, pushed the margin to 20 points where it would hover for most of the game. Vuckovic's three-point shooting (5-of-10 from deep) and senior center Julian Campbell's work on the glass (13 rebounds, 24 points) gave Cornell no breathing room.
The Vikings closed the half up 60-44, converting 57.5% of their shots and scoring 28 points in the paint.
Cornell showed fight early in the second half, trimming the deficit to 14 after a Kylen Bonner layup. But North Park answered with a steady stream of contributions from everywhere. Vanlandingham capped a 6-0 spurt with a fast-break three-pointer, and Campbell followed with a put-back to restore a 20-point lead. Even as Cornell's Bonner (19 points) and Caleb Leslie (15 points, 5 threes) tried to spark a rally, North Park had plenty of Vikings contribute as nine players scored, including five in double figures.
The night's defining storyline was Vanlandingham's triple-double with 11's all around: Points, Rebounds, and Assists. It was North Park's first in 29 years and only the fourth in program history.
North Park finished with 26 assists on 41 made field goals, dominated the boards 50-33, and outscored Cornell 48-38 in the paint. They also turned 15 Cornell turnovers into 23 points, an all-around performance before a step up in competition against No. 20-ranked UW-Eau Claire this coming Sunday.
Top Performers
North Park
Cornell
- Kylen Bonner: 19 pts, 3 reb, 8-10 FT
- Caleb Leslie: 15 pts, 5-8 3PT
- Daniel Taylor: 11 pts
What's Next?
North Park (8-2) looks to make it five-straight wins this coming Sunday, December 21, for their first game away from the North Side since December 3. The Vikings will face the 20th-ranked UW-Eau Claire Blugolds (10-0) starting at 3:00 PM CT inside the Sonnentag Event Center.
