ROCKFORD, Ill. – Edgewood College was down big at halftime to Rockford University early Saturday afternoon but brought it within eight points before dropping the NACC contest by a score of 89-71 at Seaver Gymnasium. With the loss the Eagles drop to 1-12 overall and 1-7 in the NACC while the Regents improved to 9-4 overall and 6-3 in the NACC.
The Eagles and Regents went back-and-forth through much of the first 15 minutes of the first half before the Regents got hot from the field. Spencer Barnes nailed a three-pointer with 5:32 left in the half to make it 31-24 Regents and Sy Staver went 2-for-2 from the line moments later to make it 33-26. But from that point on in the half the Regents were 6-for-10 from the field and 5-for-5 from the charity stripe to help them to a 50-36 lead heading into the locker room.
Just over three and a half minutes into the second half the Regents had built their lead to 20, but the Eagles weren't quite done yet. They got it back to within 10 with 11:32 left on a Tyler Westrick triple. Moments later, Adam Freitag converted on a layup and Arik Anderson nailed a shot from beyond the arc to make it an eight-point game at 69-61 with 6:38 remaining.
After a pair of Regents free throws, Emil Radisevic scored his 10th and 11th points of the game on a layup to bring it back to eight with 5:46 left, but the Regents would answer on the next possession and lead by as many as 10 from there on out.
Radisevic's 11-point performance was his first career game in double figures and tied for the team lead on Saturday with Arik Anderson. Adam Freitag and Staver were right behind with nine points apiece. Emilio Lopez was a force on the boards and finished with 13 rebounds while Radisevic was just three boards shy of a double-double with seven. As a team the Eagles shot just 28.6 percent compared to a mark of 44.6 from the opposition.
The Eagles will have two midweek games right around the corner. They will travel to Concordia Wisconsin on Tuesday and will host Marian on Thursday at the Edgedome. Both games start at 7 pm.
