The Benedictine University women's basketball team ended the regular season with a 65-61 loss at home to Aurora University in a precursor to the NACC Tournament Saturday afternoon.
Benedictine never led in the game but consistently battled. Aurora scored the first eight points of the game but Benedictine came back to pull within 14-12 with 1:10 left in the opening quarter on a layup from
Olympia Kokkines. The visitors led by 14 in the second before Benedictine closed within six at the half by scoring the final six of the frame on buckets from
Megan Duzansky, Kokkines and
Makenzie Carroll.
Allison Jarvis tied the game at 39 with a layup at the 6:09 mark of the third. Aurora quickly extended the lead to eight and took a seven point advantage into the final 10 minutes. Benedictine was down eight in the fourth but clawed within 63-61 on a Duzansky layup with 26 seconds remaining but could not overcome the deficit.
Benedictine held a 40-39 advantage on the glass with 20 offensive rebounds. Four players hit double digits as Benedictine shot 35.5 percent from the field. Kokkines and Carroll both scored 12.
Alexis Schueler notched 11 with
Hailey Bachmann scoring 10.
Benedictine (14-11) will visit Aurora in the conference tournament on Tuesday night at the fifth seed following a 10-6 tour of the conference this year.
