Aurora University thrives on creating chaos for its opponents.
But that chaos never developed for the Spartans on Wednesday night as a disciplined Illinois Tech team stuck to its game plan and earned an 87-71 road victory as a reward for its poise.
“They did a good job of dictating tempo,” Aurora coach Lance Robinson said. “I think we missed some open shots that might have gotten us in a rhythm. But give them the credit, they dictated things. They’ve got some good guards and had the ability to run down the shot clock and still get the ball in the hands of the guys who could score.”
The game was a nip-and-tuck battle for most of the way but the Scarlet Hawks (11-5) eventually put away Aurora courtesy of the efforts of a standout backcourt. Anthony Mosley Jr. netted a game-high 26 points and Malik Howze added 21.
That tandem kept Illinois Tech rolling in points on the offense end. Then, on the opposite end of the floor, a strong rebounding effort severely limited Aurora’s ability to create second-chance scoring opportunities. Illinois Tech outrebounded Aurora 42-30.
“They boxed us out really well,” Aurora sophomore forward Ty Carlson said. “Our goal is to be plus one, and obviously we didn’t have that tonight.”
Aurora pulled within 70-66 with just over four minutes to play. But Illinois Tech drained shot after shot as it finished the second half shooting 57 percent (16-for-28). It was a pace that Aurora was not equipped to match and the Spartans were downright frosty from the arc down the stretch, hitting just 2 of 13 attempts.
“It seems like right now if we aren’t hitting our threes, we are a not a very good team,” Robinson said. “We were pretty good at half and we talked about ‘D’ing up’ and hopefully getting out in transition. But we didn’t get our stops and it slowed down our tempo and its hard to get going.”
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Marcus Myers led Aurora (9-6) with 19 points, Carlson added 14 and Max Vickers contributed 12.
Steve Soucie is a freelance writer for The Beacon-News.