Men's Basketball drops road NACC game at Aurora

AURORA, Ill. – Aurora University took control in the second half to down Concordia University Wisconsin on Saturday afternoon, 85-71, during a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference contest inside Thornton Gymnasium.

There were seven scoring ties and eight lead changes before the Spartans put together a 21-7 scoring run to take the lead, one it wouldn't relinquish. The Falcons responded and got to within three points twice in the second half, but it wasn't enough as AU answered with a 19-6 scoring run.

CUW turned the ball over a season-high 17 times and assisted on just eight of its 24 field goals. They were also outrebounded 44-30 and gave up 44 points in the painted area. However, the Falcons bench held a 26-14 advantage behind senior Mark Scholz (Greenfield, Wis.) team-high 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting.

Junior Keith Kahlfeldt (New Berlin, Wis.) and junior Brett Boettcher (New Holstein, Wis.) each finished with 14 points for the Falcons, while sophomore Eric Kittel (Brillion, Wis.) scored nine points and stole three passes.

Brandon Smith led AU with a game-high 20 points and dished out five assists. Tyler Hall and Kyle Pilmer each tallied 18 points, while Kalmon Stokes had 11 points and six rebounds. Gavin Walker led all players with 12 assists. The Spartans shot 55.0 percent for the game.

The Falcons led for just over four minutes midway through the first half and took a 31-28 advantage into the locker room at the intermission. There were six scoring ties and seven lead changes in the first 20 minutes of play.

A pair of large scoring runs by the Spartans in the second half allowed them to earn the league victory.

CUW returns to action on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. road NACC game at Edgewood College. The game is the first of three during the week for the Spartans.