Spartans Win in Decisive Fashion

AURORA, Ill. February 28, 2008 - The Aurora University Spartan men’s basketball team advanced to the championship game of the Northern Athletics Conference tournament with a 89-64 victory over Milwaukee School of Engineering, Thursday night in AU’s Thornton Gymnasium, where Aurora is now 88-10 since the 2000-2001 season.

The contest opened up looking like it was going to be a close ball game just as the previous two meetings were (AU win 70-63, MSOE win 88-82). The Spartans had a slight lead of 25-21 in the first ten minutes of the game as Aurora’s leading scorer, senior forward Larry Welton, spent most of the first half on the bench due to foul trouble.

The Spartans led at the break 48-33 behind the hot shooting hand of senior guard Doug Lambert who had 18 first half points on four-of-six shooting from three-point land. A couple of other Spartans had impressive halves with sophomore guard Shane Roland scoring eight points on three-of-five shooting from the field and junior guard Jarrett Starwood scoring six points and four assists.

MSOE junior guard Matt Morgan led the scoring attack for the Raiders with nine points on three-of-four shooting from the field. Freshman forward Austin Meier also chipped in eight first half points on three-of-seven shooting from the field.

The second half was much of the same story for the Raiders with the Spartans never letting them close the gap to less than 15 points. Leading the way for Aurora in the second half was senior forward Mike Leonard who had 12 second half points, finishing the game with 16 points on seven-of-seven shooting from the field.

Morgan scored 15 points on five-of-nine shooting and senior forward Scott Murphy ended up with 15 points as well in his last action as a Raider.

The Spartans were led by Lambert, who finished the game with 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field while going four-of-six from behind the ark and also grabbed five rebounds. A couple of other Spartans who had impressive games were Roland who scored 13 points on four-of-seven shooting from the field and two-of-two from three-point land. Starwood ended up with 12 points on four-of-nine shooting and dished out six assists. Welton finished with nine points, seven rebounds and out four assists, while junior guard Chad Trudo finished the game with seven points.

The win pushes Aurora’s record to 22-5, while the loss ends the Raider’s season and drops their final record to 17-10 overall.

The win advances Aurora to the 2008 Northern Athletic Conference Tournament Championship game on Saturday, March 1, 2008. The Spartans will take on Lakeland College at 2:00 P.M. in Thornton Gymnasium.