Wednesday night's Northern Athletics Conference battle between Aurora University Spartans and the visiting Dominican University Stars was a tale of two halves with the Stars holding on to a 77-75 win in AU's Thornton Gymnasium.
The contest opened up with what looked to be a tight contest throughout in the first eight minutes of play with the two teams trading leads and neither team taking complete control of the contest.
The teams traded baskets the next five minutes and with seven minutes to play in the first half, Dominican held a three-point lead at 21-17.
But over the final seven minutes of the half, the Stars went on a 18-9 run and led by 12, 39-27, at the intermission. The Stars built a 14 point lead twice in the final two minutes and the Spartans looked to be overwhelmed heading into halftime.
In the opening half, Dominican shot 43.2 percent (16-of-37) from the field while
AU was 9-of-27 (33.3 percent) from the field.
Top Spartan performers in the first half were seniors
Lance Robinson and
Shane Roland. Robinson had six points and was three-of- seven from the field with four rebounds, while Roland had eight points and was one-of-two from the field with six-of-seven from the free throw line.
The Stars were led by junior guard Marquis Turley who had 12 points and was 5-of-13 from the field, two-of-two from the line and had five rebounds.
The Spartans opened the half on a 5-0 run, cutting the Star lead to seven following a basket by junior forward
Skyler Ormsbee and a three-point field goal by senior guard
Dusty Magee.
The Stars would answer the Spartans early baskets and after the two teams traded several baskets with 16 minutes to play, Dominican still held an 11 point lead at 47-36.
A Dominican 5-0 run pushed the Stars up to a game-high 16 point lead at 52-36 and that's when the veteran Spartans jumped to life.
The Spartans went on a 13-0 run over the next four minutes cutting the lead to three at 52-49 after an Ormsbee jumper off an assist from senior guard
Ari Iventosch.
Again the two teams traded baskets back and forth and with 7:38 the S
partans bring the score within one at 59-58 on a Robinson follow up off an offensive rebound.
The Stars would respond yet again, building the lead back to five forcing the resilient Spartans to dig deep over the final six minutes of play.
The comeback reached its pinnacle with 1:24 remaining to play. With the shot clock running down, Ormsbee hit a fade-away jumper giving the Spartans since they led 7-5 in the first half.
The thrilling action was not done and Star junior guard Jovan Turley answered the Ormsbee basket with a three-point field goal, off an assist from his brother Marquis. Ormsbee wasn't finished, knocking down two free throws, knotting the game at 73 with 53 seconds to play.
That is when Dominican junior guard Xavier Patterson stepped into the limelight, dropping in a lay-up giving the Stars a 75-73 lead.
Spartan senior
Shane Roland knocked down two free-throws once again tying the contest and placing the home crowd on the edge of their seats and allowing Patterson to step back into the spotlight.
With 1.8 seconds to play, Patterson again drove to the basket and knocked down a lay-up and drew a foul on Ormsbee. Patterson missed the free throw, allowing the Spartans one last chance after a timeout.
But the Spartans last chance went for naught as the in bounce pass was knocked away and giving the Stars a hard fought 77-75 NAC victory.
The Spartans were led by Ormsbee (18 points on seven-of-eight shooting from the field and six rebounds), Robinson who had a double-double with 17 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists and Roland who had 16 points on 12-of-14 shooting from the free-throw line.
Dominican was led by the Turleys, Marquis with 18 points and nine assists and Jovan with 15 points.
With the loss AU falls to 6-7; 3-3 in the NAC while Dominican improves to 4-9; 2-3 in the NAC.
