Box Score The Dominican University men’s basketball team hosted the 2012-2013 Northern Athletics Conference (NAC) South Division Champions, the Aurora University Spartans on Tuesday night, with the Stars second half run coming up just short in an 83-75 loss.  Taylor DeRoo (Holland, Mich.), averaging 18.5 points per game since January 1, led all scorers with 28 points in the losing effort for the Stars, his fourth 20+ point effort of the season.
 
Trailing 45-36 at the break after the Spartans shot near 65-percent from the field (31-for-64) in the opening period, Dominican used an 8-2 run to cut the Spartans’ lead to 68-64 with six-minutes remaining.  Aurora answered with a 7-2 run of its own, capped by three in transition from Mike Bumber, his first bucket of the night.
 
Dominican’s Logan Harris (Pleasant Plains, Ill.) answered with a three of his own on Dominican’s next possession to pull the Stars within 75-69 with 3:30 to play but Dominican could not get any closer and the Spartans sealed the game at the foul line, going 6-for-8 at the charity stripe in the final minute.
 
Aurora finished the night shooting over 48-percent from the field, going 31-for-64 from the floor, including 7-for-14 from three.  The Spartans, who out-rebounded the Stars 42-33, grabbed 15 offensive rebounds and scored 18 second-chance points.  Jordan Hester paced the Spartans’ offense with 18 points while Esteban Vega poured in 17 points on 4-for-6 shooting from the field, going 3-for-3 from three, in 21 minutes off the bench for Aurora.
 
The Stars shot near 45-percent from the field, 29-for-65, but struggled from behind the three-point stripe in the second half, going just 2-for-10 from long range.  DeRoo’s game-high 28 came just one game removed from a 29-point effort on Saturday in non-conference action against Webster.  Anthony Keener (Carol Stream, Ill.) added 18 points while Harris dropped in 14 and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds in the losing effort.
 
The loss drops the Stars to 9-16 on the season and 7-9 in NAC play with the NAC Men’s Basketball Tournament opening play on Saturday, and the Stars, the tournament’s three-seed, hosting Rockford College in a quarterfinal matchup.  Tipoff is slated for 2:00 p.m. in the Igini Sports Forum.