Hot shooting from the field was ordered up as the teams came out of the gates flaming hot shooting the ball.
AU trailed by eight early in the contest but quickly battled their way back into the game with strong play off the Spartan bench and defensive pressure that created Eagles turnovers and easy Spartan baskets.
The energetic crowd saw 19 lead changes in the first-half including the final lead change coming on a three-point field goal right before the halftime buzzer by the host Eagles. Going into the intermission, AU trailed BU 49-47.
led all scorers with 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds. The AU defense forced eight turnovers in the opening half but Benedictine countered their slopping play with hot shooting from three-point range as the Eagles were
10-of-16 from beyond the arc.
The second-half started out just like the first-half with the teams trading leads seven times over the first four and a half minutes of play.
A field goal by BU senior guard Nate Green with 16:22 to play in the game gave the Eagles the lead at 58-57. Little did the crowd know that this would be the last time AU would lead in the game.
BU built their lead up to eight (69-61) over the next four minutes and they would maintain a healthy advantage and boost their lead to nine (78-69) with 5:39 remaining before the visiting Spartans started chipping away once again.
Behind six
Esteban Vega (AU junior guard) points and a three-point field goal by Spartan junior guard
Joel Iventosch, the Spartans cut the BU lead down to two (80-78) with 1:44 to play.
But as they had done all night, the Eagles built the lead back up to six (84-78) with 47.3 seconds to play.
Following a BU timeout, Vega once again went to work, with some rebounding help from Crow. Vega hit one-of-two free-throws, missing the second which was grabbed by Crow. After Vega drew another Eagle foul, he knocked down both of his free-throw attempts to cut the lead to 84-81 with 33.3 seconds left.
After an AU timeout, the Spartans defense stepped up, trapping the inbounds play and forced the 14th turnover of the night by the Eagles.
After two missed three-point field goals, Crow slammed home the basketball to cut the Eagle lead to one (84-83) with 5.1 seconds to play.
Two made free-throws by Benedictine set up AU for one last desperation chance. Vega took the inbounds pass and after briefly loosing control of the ball, heaved a shot from just inside the half-court line that banked off the backboard and the front of the rim but would not fall, giving BU the 86-83 win.
Crow led the Spartans in defeat with a double-double of 25 points and 13 rebounds, while Vega added 19 points (all in the second-half) and Iventosch chipped in 11 points.
AU concludes the 2011-2012 season with a 13-13 overall record.
