LISLE, Ill. (WLCSports.com) – Benedictine hit its free throws down the stretch and survived a late Wisconsin Lutheran College push to edge the Warriors 61-58 in a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference game on Saturday at Dan and Ada Rice Center.
WLC (3-12, 1-7 NACC) quickly led 4-0 less than two minutes in from layups by senior
Ja'Quell Chisom (Milwaukee, Wis.) and sophomore
Lucas Anamndu (Buffalo Grove, Ill.). The Eagles trailed 6-3, but rattled off an 11-0 scoring run, the largest of the game, to take an eight-point lead with under 12 minutes remaining. Wisconsin Lutheran regained the lead near the five-minute mark and never trailed through halftime. A layup from freshman
Bryce Appel (Edgerton, Wis.) made the score 23-21 and sophomore
Sam Hans' (Hartland, Wis.) three-pointer put the Warriors in front 30-26 with two minutes left. A basket by BenU made it a two-point game at the break, 30-28.
Benedictine (4-11, 3-5 NACC) scored the first four points of the second half to regain the lead, and eventually extended the margin to six at 49-43 midway through the period. WLC trimmed the deficit to one on multiple occasions over the final 5:43, including 59-58 with 1:19 to play after a layup from freshman
Isaiah Mellock (Greendale, Wis.). The Eagles hit two free throws with 0:14 seconds left, and Wisconsin Lutheran was unable to connect on its final three shot attempts, including a three-pointer with just :02 seconds left.
The Warriors shot 31.1 percent (19-of-61) from the field and 20.8 percent (5-of-24) from three-point range. Hans led WLC with 15 points, while Anamndu and Appel added 14 points apiece. Chisom paced Wisconsin Lutheran on the glass with eight rebounds.
BenU finished the afternoon shooting 41.5 percent (22-of-53) from the field. Noah Mason led all scorers with 24 points and grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds. Aidan Werth (13 points) and Connor Glasgow (12 points) also scored in double figures for Benedictine.
The Warriors return to action on Wednesday, January 21, traveling to Lakeland (5-11, 3-6 NACC) for a 7 p.m. tipoff. Live coverage links can be found at WLCSports.com.
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