The Dominican University men's basketball team dropped a 61-56 game to the Marian University Sabres on Saturday afternoon in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, losing a nine-point lead early in the second half.
 
Josh Mayberry scored a game-high 21 points for the Stars in the losing effort while Tim Robertson added 14 as Dominican falls to 5-4 on the season and 3-2 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC).
 
The Stars led 33-24 with 19:10 to play when Charlie Ollis hit the backend of a two-shot foul but the Sabres stormed back with an 8-0 run that spanned 3:20 to bring the score to 33-32 with 15:50 to play.
 
Two minutes later the Sabres' Alex Manhardt knotted the game at 36-36 and then took their first lead of the second half, 40-38, when Will Polcyznski converted a lay in with less than 11 minutes to play.
 
After a near two minute scoreless drought for both sides, Robertson ignited a 9-0 Dominican run with a pull-up in the paint to reopen a 47-40 lead with 8:04 to play.
 
The Stars' lead hovered between three and five points for the next four minutes until Trentin Fouse's three with 3:50 to play evened the score at 53-53.  After Dominican missed a three on their following possession, Marian's Ryan Biffert gave the Sabres the lead for good with a layup with 2:41 to play.  Marian would convert on six of their eight attempts from the foul line in the final 68 seconds to keep the Stars at bay.
 
Biffert led three in double-figures for the Sabres with 15 points while Kelvin Jones and Polcyznski added 13 and 11 respectively.
 
For the game, the Stars shot 21-of-54 from the field while the Sabres connected on 18-of-54 attempts.  Dominican nailed six three-pointers to the Sabres four but the big difference came at the foul line where the Stars managed 8-for-12 shooting and the Sabres connected on 21-of-32 attempts at the free throw stripe.
 
The Stars will return home to River Forest to host the NACC-leading Benedictine University Eagles on Wednesday, January 4.  Tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. in the Igini Sports Forum.