Eagles fall short in Semifinals
Aurora 74, Benedictine 72
Lisa Carrillo-Gunning
Issue date: 3/2/09 Section: Sports
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The Eagles were coming off of a win over Marian University, 71- 64 and the Spartans were coming off a victory against Milwaukee School of Engineering, 85- 80 Wednesday night.
This was the third meeting between these two teams this year, both times before BU won. "Playing anyone three times is tough," said Eagles head coach Keith Bunkenburg. "Every time we play them it comes down to the last two minutes."
In the first half, the Eagles were up as much as 12 points. Junior forward Dan Klecan made a deep three to put the Eagles up 16- 11 with 12 minutes remaining. With 10 minutes to go, junior guard Michael Fahey made a three to make the score 22-12.
With less than one minute to play in the first half, Aurora's Chad Trudo made a shot from behind the arc to cut the score down to 36-29.
"We were up by as many as 12 points in the first half," said Bunkenburg. "I would have liked to see us have a double digit lead going into the second half."
Aurora came into the second half fighting. Junior guard Lance Robinson made a couple of quick layups to grab the lead, 43-41. The Spartans were up by 7 with 10:03 remaining in the game. The Eagles took the lead back after senior guard Jared Bailey passed the ball to sophomore forward Cameron Snelling for the lay up, to make the score 56-54.
The Eagles were trailing by three with 1:04 left; Fahey drained a three to tie the game at 69. Aurora was quick to answer and changed the lead to 71-69. With 29 seconds left Bailey nailed a three to take the lead 72-71.
Aurora's Trudo made a jump shot to change the score to 73-72 with only 13 seconds left. Benedictine had the ball right by their bench to make the shot. Freshman guard Nate Green drove through the lane to lay it up, but fell short.
AU then drove to their basket and got fouled. Sophomore guard Damian Lewis made one of his free throws to make the score 74-72. BU had one second left to make the game winning shot, but was unable to convert.
"We thought we had them, but they made some crazy shots at the end to win," said senior guard Travis Wilson.
The Spartans ended Benedictine's chance at winning the NAC tournament once again. "Aurora has beaten us the last three times in the tournament," said Wilson. "We thought this time was going to be different."
"We thought we were the better contender," added Wilson.
Leading Benedictine in scoring was Cameron Snelling with 18 points and nine rebounds. Fahey and Klecan were also in double figures for the eagles. Seniors Jared Bailey and Wilson finished their final game, Bailey contributed nine and Wilson had three points.
The Eagles finished the year with a record of 19-8. "This loss does not define us; we have a lot to be proud of. We had a lot of support from our fans and we will have a lot of our guys back next year," said Coach Bunkenburg.
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