The Aurora University Spartan men's basketball team hosted the visiting Sabers of Marian University on Saturday, February 21 in the first round of the 2014-2015 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference tournament. The top-seeded Spartans were victorious in the match winning by 14 over the No. 8 seeded Sabres with a score of 76-62.
 

The Sabers took the court with purpose scoring off the tip taking an immediate 2-0 lead over the Spartans. As the Spartans took time to get their legs under them in the early minutes, the Sabers capitalized creating an eight point lead (10-2) four minutes of the game.
 

The Spartans refusing to be held down began to rally. AU junior Tyler Hall led the rally with a quick layup followed closely by senior Brandon Smith swishing two free throws. Hall then capped off a 7-0 run with a three in the face of a Sabre defender to bring the game within one at 10-9 with 14:21 left in the half.
 

The Spartans and Sabers then traded blows for the next four minutes. At 10:31 of the first half, a layup from AU sophomore Phil Schuetz tied the game at 15 and his corresponding free-throw capped the three-point play and gave AU a lead at 16-15. Over the next six minutes the teams traded runs with AU building a five point lead only to see Marian come back and tie the game 27-27 with 4:39 to play.

The teams turned the game into a free-throw competition in the final three minutes of the half but a final layup from AU senior Kyle Pilmer sent the Spartans into the locker room leading 36-34.
 

Pilmer scored the first three points of the second half to give AU a five point lead (39-34) just under three minutes into the half.

Leading by two at 41-39, the Spartans started a 13-4 run with five different Spartans scoring. A layup by junior Nick Kladis started the run with seniors Justin Phipps, Gavin Walker and Smith collecting lay-ups to culminate the run with a double-figure lead.

From this run, the game took a drastic swing in favor of the Spartans. Marian did cut the lead to seven (62-55) with 5:56 to play in the game but that started another AU run. With momentum and purpose Hall and Smith rained in free throw after free throw to expand the AU lead to 16 following a 9-0 run. Hall went four-of-four from the line with Smith going three-of-four and Pilmer getting a lay-up to start the run. Two technical fouls on Marian players aided the Spartan free throw parade.

The lead did not fall below 14 in the final minutes with the games largest lead of 17 coming with 1:20 to play off a Smith three.

When the final horn sounded, AU advanced to the semi-final round of the NACC Tournament with a 76-62 win. Hall finished the game with 21 points on 10-of-12 from the free-throw line while Smith had 20 points and nine rebounds. Pilmer chipped in 12 points and six rebounds. AU shot 49-percent from the field while only going three-of-eight from three-point range in the game. 

With the win, AU is now 19-7 on the season. Next action for the Spartan men's basketball team comes on Tuesday, February 24, 2015 when they host No. 4 Edgewood College. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m. in Aurora, Illinois.