MADISON, Wis. – Edgewood College played right with Aurora University's fourth-ranked scoring offense throughout most of Saturday's matchup at the Edgedome, and much of that effort had to do with the three graduating seniors' performance in their final game in an Edgewood College uniform. The Eagles and Spartans were tied at 45 apiece at the halftime before the Spartans ran away at the end in a 96-82 contest. Senior guard Brian Nkemnji nearly tripled is career high in points after finishing with 13 points and five rebounds.
A flurry of three-pointers helped the Eagles maintain a lead over the course of the almost the entire first half. Nkemnji scored the first four points of the game for the Eagles and shortly after Adam Freitag nailed one of his two three-pointers in the game to go up 7-2. The Eagles would eventually stretch it out to a nine-point lead—their largest of the game—at the 7:47 mark, when Spencer Barnes knocked one down from beyond the arc to make it 33-24.
After a Tyler Westrick layup to go up 40-32, the Spartans went on a 9-0 run to tie things at 40. Emil Radisevic, who finished with a team-high 18 points, knocked down a jumper to quiet Aurora's rally, while Sy Staver, who finished second on the team with 17 points, hit one of his four triples in 2:22 left in the half. At the break there were 10 lead changes as the Eagles hit nine three's and shot 42.5 percent overall. The Spartans, who entered this weekend with the fourth-highest scoring average in all of Division III basketball at 96.4 points per game, were 5-of-14 from deep at halftime.
In the first 3:07 of the second half there were six lead changes, capped by Radisevic's traditional three-point play to go up one at 54-53. Aurora's Tyler Hall, who finished with 29 points, knocked down a layup on their next possession and the Spartans would lead from there on out. It wasn't until the 9:40 mark when the visitors finally stretched it to double figures, but the Eagles stood strong and got it back to six points with 3:58 remaining after another Staver deep ball.
With the Spartans in control late, head coach Justin Meyer was able to get his seniors in for their last bit of action as an Eagle, including giving Emilio Lopez—who has been out with an injury the last seven games—some playing time in the closing moments. Lopez drove and laid one in in the closing seconds to cap off his career.
Nkemnji was 3-of-7 from the floor and went 6-for-7 at the charity stripe in setting career highs in both points (13) and rebounds (5). Senior Dylan Heemstra had four points and snagged four rebounds while dishing out four assists.
Radisevic wound up 7-of-8 and grabbed seven boards while Staver had a career-high 17 points with help from a 4-for-5 showing beyond the arc. He also had five assists to no turnovers on the day.
Aurora's Nick Kladis led all scorers with 32 points on 9-of-17 shooting.
The loss on Saturday marks the conclusion of the 2015-16 season for the Edgewood College men's basketball team. The Eagles hit the third-most three-pointers in a single season this year with 198. Last year the Eagles hit 199 while the 2008-09 mark of 200 sits as the school record.
