River Forest, IL – The Dominican University men's basketball team led 73-70 halfway through the second half before Aurora went on a 17-3 run to pull away from the Stars for a 95-80 win inside the Igini Sports Forum on Saturday afternoon.
Dominican had four players in double figures with Jackson Smith paving the way with 18 points. Luke McDermott added 15 points on five triples while Dylan Anderson nearly missed out on a double-double with 12 points and nine rebounds. Freshman John Duszynski played 25 minutes in his collegiate debut, recording 11 points and five boards on an efficient 4-of-8 shooting.
The Spartans jumped out to an early 21-11 lead 13:28 into the contest before Robert Taylor capped off a 14-3 Stars' run to give the home team a 25-24 advantage halfway through the opening stanza.
Aurora answered back with a 17-5 run of its own to retake the led, 41-30, with 2:18 until the break, adding a three-pointer with 26 seconds remaining in the half, to keep the cushion at 11-points, 46-35, at the intermission.
A McDermott triple four minutes into the second session pulled Dominican to within one, 53-52, before back-to-back makes from beyond the arc by Duszynski and K.J. Redfield pushed the Stars ahead 66-63 with 12:14 to go.
Smith's first three-pointer of the afternoon gave the Stars their biggest lead of the game, 73-68, just over the midway point of the half but, the Spartans erupted for a 19-4 run over the next 5:23 to pull past Dominican 87-77 on their way to a 95-80 road win.
"I thought we competed very hard the entire game," said Coach
Mark White. "We had the game tied at 75-75 with about eight minutes to go and then we lost our discipline. Turnovers, fouling, giving up offensive rebounds and not contesting shooters really hurt us over the next few minutes. Those are the breakdowns that just can't happen when the game is on the line. Overall, the effort was there and we will clean up those other things moving forward."
Both teams shot the ball well as Aurora held a slight advantage in field goal percentage (44.9%-43.3%) but was deadly from long-range (45%) as they drained 14-of-31 attempts.
Dominican hits the road next weekend for a pair of games against Benedictine beginning Friday, February 5th at 7:00 p.m.
