Benedictine ends skid

The win might not have been the prettiest, but Benedictine's men's basketball team will take it.

With Wednesday night's 63-62 victory over Dominican, the Eagles earned another tally for the win column after four consecutive losses.

In order to stop the skid, though, Benedictine had to grind for all 40 minutes because neither team held a lead larger than 8 points all night.

Eagles coach Keith Bunkenburg acknowledged the win will go a long way toward building confidence for his young team.

"We're young, so these guys need some success," Bunkenburg said. "When you get a win against a really quality team after losing three or four pretty tough games, it's huge."

Benedictine (4-7, 3-2 Northern Athletics Conference) opened a 56-48 lead with 5:25 remaining in the second half on junior Jared Bailey's second 3-pointer of the game, yet Dominican refused to fold. The Stars battled back, creeping to within 60-59 with 17 seconds left in the game on a pair of Mike Haiduc free throws.

After Antonio Brooks missed the back end of a 1-and-1 free-throw situation, Dominican came down the court with a chance to tie or take the lead. However, the Eagles' defense collapsed on a driving Rashim Lettsome, forcing a loose ball into the hands of Cameron Snelling, whose free throws with five seconds remaining iced the game.

The two teams split the season series last year before coming down to the wire again Wednesday, making for exciting NAC action.

"Both teams want to get it inside. They want to push and we want to push," Bunkenburg said. "I think our matchups are fairly similar. They're not overly offensive-oriented, and neither are we."

Limiting Haiduc's offensive contributions played a key role in the Eagles' victory, as Benedictine's defense allowed the 6-foot-8 senior just 7 points on 1-of-4 shooting.

"We really tried to get him off the block as much as we could, and we played really good help defense," Bunkenburg said. "A.J. (Brown), our freshman big guy, physically, he's a monster, so it was tough for Haiduc to get around him once he caught it."

Stars coach Mark White echoed Bunkenburg's sentiments, crediting Benedictine's defense for slowing down the Dominican attack.

"I thought Benedictine did a great job on the defensive end of the floor," White said. "We only scored 62 points, and you're not going to win a lot of games when you score 62."