The Aurora University Spartan women's basketball team, led by first-year head coach Jabari Harrell, took to their home court together for the first time on Tuesday night against the visiting Raiders of Milwaukee School of Engineering. 

Despite a thrilling second half comeback, the Spartans fell to the Raiders 67-65 in the Northern Athletics Conference match-up.

The Raiders got out to a quick 7-2 lead on the Spartans three minutes into the contest and built an 11-point lead (28-17) with 5:44 remaining in the opening half. But AU, led by senior guard Jess Mason's seven points in the final minutes cut the Raider lead to four at the half, 31-27.

The Spartans trailed by just four at the halftime intermission despite being out-rebounded 29-19 and shooting 27.3 percent (9-33) from the field. AU forced 12 Raider turnovers that helped them stay within reach in the opening half.

The second half saw the Raiders open up with a three-point basket by junior guard Marguerit Wellstein to give them a seven point lead and that's when the Spartans went to work.

The AU defense forced four Raider turnovers and when senior guard Ashley Daniels converted a lay-up with 15:30 to play, the Spartans trailed by one (39-38).

Four minutes later, the Spartans grabbed their first lead of the contest (47-46) when Daniels drove the lane before dishing off a beautiful pass to senior forward Michelle Perry who converted the lay-up.

But the Raiders answered the Spartan burst with a run of their own. A 15-4 run by MSOE gave the visitors a 10 point lead (61-51) with 5:15 to play in the contest.

The resilient Spartans answered right back with an 11-0 run to regain the lead 62-61 with 1:25 to play in the game. Once again Daniels dished a pass to Perry for the go ahead lay-up.

In the final minute both teams countered with the Raiders Wellstein connecting on a three-point field goal to take a 64-62 lead just to be answered by AU junior guard Jen Robinson who knocked down a three-point field goal of her own to give the Spartans a 65-64 lead with 45 seconds to play.

Over the next 39 seconds, MSOE would miss five shot attempts but were able to rebound all five misses before Wellstein struck again. She corralled a loose ball off a blocked shot by AU's Perry and calmly hit the eventual game winning three-point field goal with six seconds to play.

The Spartans had a chance to tie the game in the final seconds, getting off two shots that could not find the way through the net.

The loss drops AU to 1-6 overall and 0-3 in the NAC, while MSOE is 3-2 overall and 2-1 in the NAC.