Saturday afternoon brought all kinds of excitement to Thornton Gymnasium as the Aurora University men's basketball team welcomes Illinois Tech, celebrated senior day and then the Spartans went on to use a huge second-half led by the defense to defeat the Scarlet Hawks 70-67

THE BASICS
FINAL SCORE: Aurora University 70, Illinois Tech 67
LOCATION: Aurora, Illinois - Lancaster Court in Thornton Gymnasium
RECORDS: Aurora University 11-11 overall and 9-8 in the NACC; Illinois Tech 12-10 overall and 9-8 in the NACC

HOW IT HAPPENED
- AU jumped out to an 8-4 lead following a three from senior Marquis Howard.
- IIT took advantage of a cold shooting first-half by the Spartans and took a double-digit lead with 7:37 left to play.
- AU trailed by as many as 16 points in the opening half before going to halftime down 11 at 42-31.
- As the Spartans began to chip away at the deficit early in the second half, AU trailed by 10 (51-41) with 13:42 to play.
- An 11-2 AU run fueled by three's from Jarek Hotwagner and Terrell Wilson pulled the Spartans to down just two (54-52) with 10:48 to play.
- A Bailey Vance lay-up minutes later tied the game up for the first time in almost 25 minutes.
- From 5:59 to 2:00 to play, the teams traded leads five times.
- A lay-up from Terrell Wilson with exactly two minutes to go gave AU a 67-66 lead.
- The Spartans got a defensive stop on the following possession and a Wilson basket gave AU a 69-66 lead with just over one minute to play.
- Each team made one of two free-throws in the final 14 seconds of action, setting up a final possession for IIT with AU leading 70-67.
- The Spartan defense swarmed the Hawks forcing a long desperation three from a big as the buzzer sounded.
- AU was victorious behind a second-half defensive showing, 70-67.

SPARTAN TOP PERFORMERS
- Bailey Vance had a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds
- Terrell Wilson had 15 points off the AU bench.

SPARTAN GAME STAT LEADERS
POINTS: Bailey Vance (17) and Terrell Wilson (15)
REBOUNDS: Bailey Vance (11)
ASSISTS: Tyler Carlson, Max Vickers and Demetrius Pointer (2)
STEALS: Terrell Wilson (2)

UP NEXT:Next action for the Spartan men's basketball team comes on Tuesday, February 12 when they travel to Edgewood College. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m. in Madison, Wisconsin.