The Millikin men's basketball team edged Aurora University 72-70 on December 19 at the Griswold Center.

          Millikin closed the first half strong and built a 37-28 advantage at the half.  The Big Blue were sluggish to start the second half and Aurora opened with a 13-4 run to take the lead at 41-40 with 16 minutes remaining.  The next eight minutes would be a back-and-forth contest before the Big Blue pushed out to a 60-52 lead with 7:23 left in the game.  Millikin would push the advantage to 10 points with three minutes left before the Spartans made one final run in closing minutes.  The Big Blue went 2-7 from the free throw line in the final two minutes, which let the Spartans hang close and a Matt Dunn three-pointer made it 71-70 Millikin with 12 seconds left in the game.  Tyler Pygon hit one free throw with three tenths of a second to go putting the Big Blue up 72-70.

          Millikin shot 56.5 percent from the field and were 7-12 (58 percent) from three-point range.  Aurora shot 43 percent from the field and went 11-35 (31 percent) from three-point range.  Millikin won the rebounding battle 34-25.

          Millikin had a balanced scoring attack led by Zach Fisher with 18 points.  DeVante Harrell added 15 points and six rebounds.  Elijah Henry had 14 points and a team high eight rebounds.  Levi Laws had nine points, four rebounds and four assists.

Pygon added nine points.

          Marcus Myers led Aurora with 22 points.  Ty Carlson added 13 and Max Vickers had 12.

          Millikin is now 6-4 on the year and Aurora goes to 5-5.

          Millikin will return home on December 28 hosting Finlandia University at 5 p.m.