Wednesday, December 10 found the Aurora University men's basketball team in River Forest, Illinois for a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference match-up with the Dominican University Stars. AU won their fifth straight contest 80-68 over Dominican.

The Spartans found themselves trailing early in the contest as Dominican opened up with a 4-0 run to start the game. The veteran Spartans responded immediately with a 9-0 run to take a 9-4 lead 4:30 into the game.

With 9:40 to play freshman Denzel Irving hit a free-throw to tie the game at 16-16 and after a missed second shot, AU senior Brandon Smith drained a three following an offensive rebound from fellow senior Joe Kwiatkowski. The three gave AU a lead that they would not relinquish the rest of the game.

AU would expand on the lead an take a nine-point lead at 40-31 into halftime. Senior Gavin Walker led AU in the first-half with 11 points with Smith and Irving each adding eight points.

Coming out of halftime AU embarked on a 13-6 run to take a 16-point lead at 53-37. Smith had two three-pointers in the run while junior Kalmon Stokes had the other seven points with two coming on a dunk and the run capped on his three-point basket.

Dominican would try and claw back into the AU lead but the Spartans would not allow the home Stars to get any closer than eight points over the final 15 minutes of action before the final horn sounded with a 12-point win at 80-68.

Senior Kyle Pilmer led four Spartans scoring in double figures with 17 points and nine rebounds, Smith had 15 points and three assists, Walker had 14 points and eight assists and Stokes had 12 points and eight rebounds.

With the win, AU is now 7-2 overall and 5-0 in the NACC. Next action for the Spartan men's basketball team comes on Saturday, December 13 when they host Edgewood College. Game time is set for 4:15 p.m. in Thornton Gymnasium.