AURORA, Ill. – Sophomore Austin Stueck hit a half-court shot at the buzzer to send the MSOE men's basketball team past Aurora 78-75 Wednesday evening at Thornton Gymnasium.
The Raiders (10-3, 5-3 NACC) trailed by 13 points with 3:02 remaining, but battled back to overtake the Spartans (9-5, 6-3 NACC) with 20 seconds to go, before Stueck broke a 75-75 tie at the buzzer.
Gavin Walker converted a pair of free throws to give AU a 72-59 lead with just over three minutes to play. Senior John Cording answered with a quick layup and junior Jeremiah Erdmann came up with a steal and basket on the other end.
Sophomore Dylan Jones got a steal on Aurora's next possession and hit a free throw. After two more Spartan charity tosses, Cording hit a layup and another Erdmann steal led to a Stueck three-pointer to make it 74-69 at 2:04.
Another AU turnover led to a Cording layup to make it a one-possession game. Sophomore Connor Patterson grabbed a defensive rebound that Stueck turned into a layup to make it 74-73. The Raiders fouled on the Spartans' next possession, but the home team missed both free throws with 20 seconds on the clock.
Patterson grabbed another rebound and set up a Jones layup to give MSOE a 75-74 lead with just eight seconds remaining. Tyler Hall drew a foul with one second on the clock and tied the game with his first free throw. His second try was off the mark and Patterson was able to corral the rebound and find Stueck, who got the ball out to halfcourt and put up the game-winning shot.
The Raiders allowed the Spartans to shoot 51 percent in the game, but they forced 23 turnovers and converted those into 23 points. MSOE shot a strong 45.6 percent for the night, while committing just 12 turnovers.
Stueck scored a game-high 26 points on 11-of-18 shooting for his fourth game with 20-or-more points in his last six games. Cording was the only other Raider in double-figures with 15 points to go with his five steals.
Aurora featured balanced scoring with four players in double-digits. Hall and Kalmon Stokes scored 13 points each and Brandon Smith and Scott Laskowski tallied 12 points apiece.
The Red and White returns to action Tuesday at Wisconsin Lutheran.