The Aurora University Spartan men's basketball team avenged a pair of regular season losses to Edgewood College with a 77-69 win over the Eagles on Tuesday night in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Tournament Semi-Final in AU's Thornton Gymnasium. With the win, AU will host the NACC Tournament Championship for the sixth time in nine seasons on Saturday, February 28 at 2:00 p.m.

The top ranked Spartans jumped out to a 6-0 lead 1:23 into the game and with 16:23 left in the opening half, led 10-2. But the early lead quickly evaporated as Edgewood took off on a 19-2 run over 7:16 to take a 21-12 lead. AU who started four-for-seven from the field hit the brakes from the field going 1-of-11 with three turnovers and missed the only two free-throws they attempted in the Edgewood run.

But not to be out done, the battle tested Spartans finished the half on a 28-9 run to take a 10-point lead into halftime. The Spartans went 11-of-14 from the field in the final nine minutes including five-for-five from three-point range.

Senior Brandon Smith led all scorers with 11 first-half points while fellow senior Kyle Pilmer had six points and eight rebounds and junior Tyler Hall had seven points, five assists and four rebounds. Rounding out the first half Spartan scorers were senior Gavin Walker and junior Kalmon Stokes who each had eight points. Edgewood was led by Tal Diekvoss (10 points) and Trevor Neale (seven points).

Coming out of the halftime intermission, the Spartans continued their run with a 7-0 streak to take the games largest lead of 17 points at 47-30.

Edgewood would respond though, snapping the 35-9 run with a three from Emilio Lopez and that three ignited another Edgewood run. Just as they had done in the first-half, the visiting Eagles got themselves back in the game with a 26-10 run to cut the lead to one (57-56) with 8:19 to play.

The Edgewood run lasted 7:29 of game time and again a cold snap for the Spartans aided the Eagle run. AU was 4-of-13 from the field with two turnovers while Edgewood went 10-for-11 from the field and two-for-three from the free throw line.

Aided by a solid home crowd, the Spartans answered with another run to expand the lead back to double-digits. A 13-3 Spartan run culminated in a Stokes fast-break dunk that had the AU crowd going crazy. With 1:58 to play, AU led 70-59.

Edgewood would chip into the lead down the stretch but got no closer than six (72-66) on a three from Dylan Rusch. The Rusch three came immediately after a highlight alley-oop dunk from Hall to Stokes. The Spartans built the lead back to 11 on free-throws before a last second three provided for the final eight point margin in favor of the Spartans.

Five Spartans finished the night in double-figures, led by 19 from Stokes who added seven rebounds. Smith finished with 13 points on three-of-five from three-point range, Hall had 12 points, seven assists and six rebounds, junior Nick Kladis had 12 points all off the bench in the second half, going three-of-three from three-point range and three-of-four from the free throw line. Walker rounded out the double-figure scorers with 11 points, four assists, four rebounds, three steals and one blocked shot. Pilmer finished with a game-high 10 rebounds and added eight points.

For Edgewood, Diekvoss had a game-high 20 points, Lopez had 16 points, Neale had 13 points and Rusch was held to just six points (2-of-10 from the field) with five assists.

With the win, AU is now 20-7 overall. Next action for the Spartan men's basketball team comes on Saturday, February 28, 2015 when they host No. 3 Concordia University Wisconsin in the 2014-2015 NACC Tournament Championship. Game time is set for 2:00 p.m. in Aurora, Illinois inside Thornton Gymnasium.