LISLE, IL - It didn't come easy, but the Benedictine University women's basketball team held off Dominican to win a 17th in a row and reach the NACC Tournament Championship for the first time since 2015.

FINAL SCORE
Benedictine 63, Dominican 60

THE DETAILS
• Benedictine led for nearly the entire contest
• The game was tied 7-7 with 6:34 left in the opening quarter before a free throw from Alex Fanning opened a 13-0 run to close the quarter
• Allison Michalski made three straight baskets during the run and accounted for half of the quarter's point total as Benedictine led 20-7
• Reggie Much opened the second quarter with a three-pointer to extend the run to 16-0 and the lead to 23-7
• Fanning made a jumper with 4:36 left in the half as Benedictine led 31-14 and held a 35-21 lead at the break
• A three-point play from Claire Gibler in the first minute of the third allowed Benedictine to open a 40-22 advantage
• Dominican cut the lead to 11 in the third and had a pair of opportunities to slice the deficit under double figures but Benedictine took a 50-37 lead into the final 10 minutes
• Michalski hit a jumper to begin the fourth quarter that enabled the junior to reach 1,000 career points, becoming the ninth player in program history to reach the mark and the second under head coach Charlie Averkamp
• The basket made the score 52-37 but Dominican quickly utilized an 8-2 run to pull within 54-45
• The visitors continued to slowly chip away, pulling within 59-55 on a three with 2:41 remaining
• With 16 seconds to play, a layup brought Dominican within 62-60 before Fanning split a pair of free throws
• Dominican had a pair of attempts to tie the game in the final 10 seconds before a rebound sealed the win, a 17th in a row overall and a 25th straight at home
• Benedictine has been to three tournament championships but has never won

STAT LEADERS
• Fanning led all scorers with 21 points, adding 16 rebounds to go with four blocks
• Michalski notched 18
• Benedictine scored 46 points in the paint and finished +1 on the glass while shooting 38 percent for the game

UP NEXT
Benedictine (24-2) welcomes Edgewood on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. with the winner receiving the automatic bid to the NACC Tournament. Both teams are 24-2 on the year and regionally ranked. The squads met just once, a 71-66 Benedictine win in Wisconsin on January 18