BOX SCORE
ELMHURST, Ill. – Cameron Snelling was named to the All-Tournament Team and Nate Green was named the Most Valuable Player as Benedictine University defeated Elmhurst College 65-56 in the championship game of the 2010 Bluejay Classic.
Elmhurst (5-6) jumped out to an early eight point lead just five minutes into play after a three-pointer from Sean Fendley.
Neither team scored for the next five minutes until a three-pointer from Brian Genslinger snapped the scoring drought and sent the Eagles (7-4) on an 18-5 scoring run. A three-pointer from Terry Licht put the Eagles within one with just over one minute remaining in the first half and after a steal and layup from Green the Eagles took their first lead of the game. Snelling hit a last second shot to send Benedictine up 23-20 at half.
The Eagle offense continued to heat up in the second half, taking a 12-point lead early on after a layup from AJ Brown. Benedictine would take their biggest lead of the game, a 16-point advantage with under 11 minutes left with a three-pointer from Dario Jokic.
The Bluejays began to trim the Eagle lead over the next several minutes and a James Robertson three cut the lead to six.
Two made free-throws and a layup from Licht put Benedictine back up by eight with less than two minutes left in the game.
Elmhurst's Zach Boyd caught fire in the final minutes to cut the lead to five with 40 seconds left but the Eagles would hit six of their next eight free throws in the final seconds to secure the 65-56 win.
Green led all players with 17 points and also tallied eight rebounds, five steals and seven assists. Snelling collected a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds while Licht scored 13 points and Brown had 11.
As a team, BenU was 21-for-46 from the field (45.7 percent) and were 18-for-30 from the free-throw line (60 percent). The Eagles out-rebounded the Bluejays 38-37.
Boyd led Elmhurst with 11 points as the Bluejays shot 32.2 percent from the floor (19-for-59) and 70 percent from the free-throw line (14-for-20).
The men are back in action on Tuesday, January 4 when they travel to St. Louis to take on Washington University at 4:00 p.m.
