Box Score
RIVER FOREST, Ill. – The Edgewood College men's basketball team stretched its lead in the Northern Athletics Conference's North division with a 71-60 win on the road over Dominican University in a Northern Athletics Conference matchup at the Igini Sports Forum on Saturday night.
The Eagles (9-8, 7-2 NAC) used a 15-6 run toward the latter stages of the first half to climb back from nine points down and eventually take a halftime lead in which they would turn into an 11-point win. Four Eagles reached double figures led by Ben Wisniewski's 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting.
Dominican (7-10, 3-6 NAC) jumped out to a 25-16 lead with 8:03 left in the first half and then Edgewood College rallied off seven of the next nine points capped off by a layup from Jeff Barczak for two of his 10 points. Kent Faurote would tie it up at 31-apiece with a three-pointer and the Eagles took a 39-36 lead into the break.
Wisniewski, Jon Ciche and Aaron Ritschard then combined to score the first six points in the second half to put the pressure on the Stars early. For Ciche, it was two of his six points to complement a game-high 11 rebounds and a block. Dominican would answer with five straight points of its own, but shortly after the rout was on. The Eagles pushed the lead to as many as 15 points with a John Schuster three-pointer. The Stars would cut the deficit to less than 10 before the lead became insurmountable.
Balanced scoring led the Eagle attack on Saturday. Ritschard added 12 while Faurote chipped in 10. Brock Bidlinmaier and Schuster finished just shy of double figures with nine and eight points, respectively. Edgewood College shot just under 50 percent for the game at 49.1 percent (26-of-53) from the field including 8-of-16 from three-point range, however, its free throw shooting struggled at 68.8 percent (11-of-16).
Kyle Tipton led the Stars with a game-high 18 points on 6-of-16 from the field and grabbed nine rebounds as well. Dan Borys added 12 points, six boards and four assists in the loss. The Eagles remain atop the NAC's North division with a 7-2 record, two games ahead of Concordia Wisconsin who fell to Concordia Chicago today.
Edgewood College will host Marian University this Wenesday, Jan. 28. Tipoff is slated for 7:00 p.m.
