MILWAUKEE - The MSOE men's basketball team battled with No. 14 Benedictine and hung with the defending league champions in the second half, but could not catch up in a 71-52 loss Tuesday night at the Kern Center.

The Raiders (1-4, 1-2 NACC) came out of the gates strong and gave the Eagles (5-2, 3-0 NACC) their first challenge of the league slate after they had won their first two conference games by an average of 30 points.

Junior Tegan Miles put together another strong game with 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting and six rebounds for MSOE. Sophomore Max Wojcik chipped in nine points, while senior Collin Seubert and freshman Jake Gebert had seven points each. Gebert's output came in just six minutes of action.

Tahron Harvey led BenU with 16 points, as Brayden Olson and Michael Blaszczyk also reached double-digits with 12 and 10 points to go with 10 rebounds, respectively. Five more players scored at least five points in a balanced effort for the visitors.

MSOE jumped out to an early advantage, taking a 9-3 lead on a Miles jumper just under five minutes into the game. That would be its largest lead, as BenU started to come back, eventually tying the game at 13-13 just under three minutes later.

The score was 15-15 when the visitors went on a 15-3 run to open a 30-18 lead heading into the final two minutes. The Raiders went just over four minutes without a basket, but rallied at the end of the half when senior Alex Darville snapped the drought with a jumper and junior Greg Pigg scored the final five points of the half.

Miles opened the second-half scoring with a sky hook in the lane, but that was as closes as MSOE would get in the second half.

The Red & White shot a strong 47.8 percent from the field in the opening half and had an 18-10 rebounding advantage, but had to overcome nine turnovers in the half.

Benedictine opened up the game with an 11-0 run to take a 55-37 lead, but the Raiders battled right back with an 11-2 run. Gebert powered the run with seven-straight MSOE points at one point as the team pulled with 57-48 with 5:48 remaining.

Unfortunately, the Eagles responded with nine-straight points to re-establish the 18-point advantage and put the game out of reach.

MSOE cooled off in the second half and shot 38.9 percent for the game, while BenU caught fire after halftime and finished at 49.1 on the night. Rebounds evened out in the second half, but the Red & White finished with the 34-33 edge.

The Raiders return to the court Saturday, playing at Dominican.