Box Score The Dominican University men's basketball team fell short Wednesday night, falling to the visiting Aurora University Spartans 77-75 in the Igini Sports Forum.

Dominican's Kevin Tiongson (Hoffman Estates, Ill.) tied a career high with 17 points in the losing effort. Tiongson spurred the Stars to a 25-12 lead with 8:44 remaining in the first half, scoring eight of his 11 first half points during a 20-4 run for the Stars that spanned over six minutes and was capped by a Tiongson two point jumper.

The Spartans' offense answered and closed out the first half with their own 23-6 run to reclaim the lead, leading 35-31 at the break.

Aurora continued to gradually build upon their lead in the first eight minutes of the second half, claiming their largest lead of the night, 54-39, on a lay in by Scott Laskowski.

The Stars refused to go quietly, responding with a quick 8-0 run, four points apiece for Taylor DeRoo (Holland, Mich.) and Josh Mayberry (Canton, Mich.) to trim the lead to 54-47 with under 11 minutes remaining.

Aurora rebuilt the lead all the way back up to 12 before Dominican chipped away over the final nine minutes, eventually narrowing the gap to one, 76-75, with three seconds to play behind a barrage of three-point field goals but ultimately ran out of time.

On the night, the Stars knocked down a season-high 11 three-pointers, going 11-for-21 from long range. Tiongson led the way, going 5-for-6, with Mike Bobek (Orland Hills, Ill.) dropping in 3-of-4 from three.

Mayberry reached double-figures for the 13^th consecutive game, finishing with 16 points while DeRoo added 15 as three scored in double figures for Dominican.

The Spartans were paced by Brandon Smith's career-high 27 points on 10-for-18 shooting, going 3-for-6 from three.

The loss dropped the Stars to 3-14 on the season and 2-10 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC). Dominican will be back on action on Saturday, traveling to Madison, Wis., to take on the Edgewood College Eagles.