Box Score AU's Thornton Gymnasium was the location for the Northern Athletics Conference women's basketball match-up between the Aurora University Spartans and the Muskies from Lakeland College. The Spartans
and Muskies went back and forth in the first half with Lakeland going into halftime with a five point lead. They exploded out of the gates in the second half to extend the lead that they would never give up. The Muskies came out with the win by a score of 60-48.
Aurora started off regulation with a hot streak that gave them a 13-3 lead with 13:39 left in the opening half.
The Muskies answered this run quickly with a 9-0 scoring streak of their own to make the score 13-12 Aurora with 9:09 to play.
Both teams went back and forth over the next six minutes to find themselves tied (18-18) with 3:49 remaining in the half.
After Spartan freshman forward
Neely Marks went one-of-two from the free-throw line to give her team
the lead Lakeland nailed consecutive three-point field goals to close the half with a 24-19 lead.
Lakeland started off the second half by extending their lead to 10 points over the first five minutes in the half (34-23).
The Spartans were unable to get the Muskies out of their good play and 9:00 left on the clock, Lakeland led 47-31. This was the Muskies largest lead of the game.
Aurora fought back going on an 11-3 run to come within eight (50-42) with 4:22 to play.
The Muskies held off the Spartans for the remaining 4:22 in regulation and won the game by a score of 60-48.
After the loss, Aurora moves on to 2-15 overall record and 1-9 in the NAC. The Spartan women are in actionr nexxt on the road at Benedictine Universtiy on
Tuesday, January 24 at 7:00 p.m. in Lisle, Ill.
