The Dominican University men's basketball team slipped to 8-8 on the season and 4-7 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC), suffering an 86-76 setback on the road at Edgewood College on Tuesday night to the Eagles.
 
"We are going through a tough stretch right now but I'm really proud of our effort," said Mark White, the Stars' head men's basketball coach. "This team competes, believes and is driven to keep improving.  We will be okay."
 
Shooting just 35-percent in the first half, the Stars found themselves trailing by ten at the break.  Dominican managed to erase that deficit, evening the score at 53-53 when Luke McDermott buried one of his three second-half threes with 13:05 to play.
 
Edgewood answered with a quick 4-0 run to pull back in front.  The Stars managed to keep the game within striking distance throughout the remainder of the half until Edgewood used a 7-2 run over the game's final 1:40 to keep the Stars at bay.
 
The Stars, paced by McDermott's team-high 14 points, shot 25-for-64 from the field, improving to near 42-percent in the second half.  Jackson Smith added 17 while Tyler Guest and Dylan Anderson dropped in 13 apiece.  Guest added 11 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season.
 
The Eagles were led by Ben Seefeld's game-high 24 points while Jake Negus and Ryan Buss added 20 and 13 points respectively.  The Eagles converted at a 41-percent clip from the field, 27-for-65, but held a distinct advantage at the foul line, converting on 26 of 28 attempts from the charity stripe while Dominican hit on 19 of its 29 attempts at the foul line.
 
After back-to-back losses on the road, the Stars return home to host the Benedictine University Eagles on Saturday.  Tipoff is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. at the Igini Sports Forum.