AURORA, ILL.—The Spartans from Aurora University welcomed the Illinois Institute of Technology men's basketball team to the Thornton Gymnasium for a Saturday-afternoon Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) contest. Max Hisatake's third double-double of the season with 25 points and 15 rebounds fell just short of digging the Scarlet Hawks out of a 23-point hole as they came up short 85-83 against Aurora University.
IIT falls to 0-5, 0-2 NACC while Aurora exits Saturday with a 2-3, 1-0 NACC record.
Hisatake's performance now gives him 946 points and 851 rebounds throughout his four-year career. He along with Miles Curry each notched four points over the opening 3:05 of play, where IIT's latest lead was 8-5 with 16:55 remaining in the first half. Aurora responded with an 8-0 run that gave them a 13-8 edge with 13:20 remaining in the opening frame.
Hisatake's layup at the 8:56 mark of the first half gave IIT their final lead of the game at 19-17 before Aurora took a 42-30 lead at halftime.
The second half was all IIT, who lit up the floor with a .724 (21-29) shooting mark within the final 20:00 where Hisatake was a perfect 6-for-6 with 13 points while Curry led all players with 15 in the frame. After Aurora jumped to their 23-point 70-47 cushion at the 12:10 mark of the second, IIT erupted for 36 points the remainder of the contest, but ran out of time when Hisatake nailed a three-pointer at the buzzer to narrow the score to 85-83.
The Scarlet Hawks concluded the contest 33-for-60 (.550) from the field along with 18 assists. Miles Curry added 24 points and seven boards for IIT while Ahmad Muhammad notched 14 points and a game-high four assists. Will Hrubes paced Aurora with 18 points and seven boards.
IIT will return to action on Wednesday, December 4 at Dominican University (Ill.) for a 7:00 p.m. tip.
MBB | Scarlet Hawks drop an 85-83 decision to Aurora.
— Illinois Tech Athletics (@ILTechAthletics) November 30, 2019
Max Hisatake notched a double-double 25 points and 15 rebounds for IIT. Miles Curry added 24 points while Ahmad Muhammad tallied 14 for the Scarlet Hawks!
Check out a few �� from today's game! pic.twitter.com/IH73BYu3Uw