The Aurora University Spartans women's basketball team hosted the Eagles of Benedictine University on Wednesday night in Thornton Gymnasium. AU led at halftime and held a commanding lead early in the second-half before ice cold shooting from the field did them in as they were defeated 56-48.

The first half of action saw both teams make runs and take decent sized leads with AU eventually holding a two-point advantage going into halftime. With just over eight minutes played in the first half, the Spartans had a six-point lead, 15-9. But the visiting Eagles went on a 13-2 run to take a five point lead of their own with 4:42 to play.

AU then closed out the half with a 12-5 advantage to take the halftime lead. A three-pointer from AU junior Shannon Koski sent the Spartans in to half with a 29-27 lead on the Eagles. Koski led AU in the first half with 18 points as only four Spartans scored in the opening half.
 
In the second half the Spartans started off hot hitting 8 of their first 11 shots and took mwhat looked to be a commanding 43-40 lead with 15:18 to play in the game.

After the jumper by senior Neely Marks gave AU the 13 point lead, the Spartans went 0 for 17 from the field in the remaining 15 minutes of action with the final five points coming from the free throw line. Despite the offensive struggle, the Spartan defense kept them in the game. AU did not surrender the lead until 3:29 was left in the game and did not lead again in the final 2:50 of action.

The visiting Eagles took advanatge of the AU offense to go on a 26-5 run in the final 15:18. As the final horn sounded, AU dropped to 0-6 on the season and 0-2 in the NACC. Koski finished with 22 points and nine rebounds, Marks had a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds and freshman Morgan Ricketts had nine points and eight rebounds.

Next action for the Spartan women's basketball team comes on Saturday, December 6 when they travel to Wisconsin Lutheran College. Game time is set for 2:00 p.m. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.