ROCKFORD, IL - The Benedictine University men's basketball team held off Rockford on the road to win another close contest.

FINAL SCORE
Benedictine 82, Rockford 79

THE DETAILS
• Rockford built a seven-point lead at 16-9 just over five minutes into the game
• Kenny Bogus scored five straight points and tied the game at 22-22 with a three-pointer at the 9:16 mark
• Collin Mergl followed by giving Benedictine the lead with a layup on a pass from Keegan Graebner
• A three from Hayden Helfrich put Benedictine ahead for the rest of the half at 29-27 with 6:20 remaining and a 7-0 run finished with a basket from Bryan Jakobsze enabled Benedictine to lead by eight points in the final minute of the half
• Benedictine could not put away Rockford in the second half as the hosts clawed within 50-47 with 14:14 to go
• Eric Grygo knocked down a three-pointer and scored the first five points of an 8-0 run that saw Benedictine extend the lead to 69-55 with just over eight minutes left on a jumper from Carl Singletary Jr.
• Rockford cut the lead down to five with five minutes left before Benedictine again moved ahead by 10 at 76-66 with 3:39 remaining and a dunk from Jakobsze seemed to put the game out of reach with 1:09 left, making the score 82-70, but Rockford scored the final nine points and missed two attempts to tie in the closing seconds
• The last four games have been decided by a total of 10 points with Benedictine owning a 3-1 mark
• For the season 10 games have been decided by under 10 points

STAT LEADERS
• Grygo led all scorers with 22 points, one of five in double figures, and added 10 rebounds for a third consecutive double-double
• Jakobsze finished with 15 off the bench, notching seven boards and four assists
• Singletary posted 13, Helfrich 11 and Bogus 10
• Bogus swatted six shots
• Benedictine shot 47.9 percent for the game and scored 48 points in the paint while receiving 33 points from the bench

UP NEXT
Benedictine (8-6, 5-4 NACC) is back at home on Saturday against Edgewood.