The rivalry continued Tuesday night as the Aurora University men's basketball team traveled to Benedictine University in a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference showdown. The Spartans never trailed as they out ran the Eagles 76-69.

AU built an early 8-2 lead to see the Eagles tie the game up at 13-13 with 15:30 to go in the first half. The Spartans got one of several fast break layups, this one from senior Brandon Smith to regain a 15-13 lead.

From that point forward AU would not trail in the half and led by as many as seven points on a couple different occasions before taking a 41-36 lead into halftime.

In the first half, junior Tyler Hall had 13 of his eventual game high point total on five of eight shooting from the field and junior Kalmon Stokes had six points and seven rebounds.

The Spartans opened up the second half on a 6-0 run to take an 11-point lead at 47-36. With 14:34 to play in the game, sophomore Phil Schuetz drained a three-point field goal to give AU their largest lead of 12-points at 52-50.

Over the next four minutes the host Eagles answered with a 12-0 run of their own to tie the game at 52-52.

AU responded immediately with a 7-0 run of their own to push the lead back to seven. The run was capped off by a Schuetz three-point play (lay up and free throw).

The Spartans were able to maintain the somewhat comfortable seven point margin over the final 7 plus minutes of the game and take home the 76-69 road NACC win.

Hall led all scorers with 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting from the field, senior Kyle Pilmer finished with 14 points and five rebounds and Schuetz had 10 points off the AU bench. The Spartans had 52 points in the paint on the night, 22 points off the 16 BU turnovers and shot 50.8-percent from the field (31-61).

With the win, AU is now 4-2 overall and 2-0 in the NACC. Next action for the Spartan men's basketball team comes on Thursday, December 4 when they host Rockford University. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m. in Thornton Gymnasium.