LISLE, Ill. – MSOE men's basketball headed across Wisconsin's southern boarder to play in their first game since thrashing Lakeland at home on Saturday afternoon. #21 Benedictine would be their opponent on Tuesday night, and even though the Raiders carried a 15-point lead into halftime, the Eagles would be too much to handle in the second half of a seven-point loss.

RESULTS
MSOE – 74
#21 Benedictine - 81

HOW IT HAPPENED
MSOE (5-7, 2-5 NACC) started out the contest on an 8-0 run and didn't look back from there in the first half. The Raiders held the lead for all 20 minutes, shooting an absolutely lights out 66.7 percent from the field. They also went 4-8 from behind the arc as they built up a 15-point lead by halftime. Unfortunately for the Red & White, they couldn't maintain that same offensive efficacy in the second frame. MSOE's field goal percentage dropped to 30 percent, making only nine of their 30 attempts in the last half. Meanwhile, #21 Benedictine (10-2, 6-1 NACC) also had a reversal of their own. The Eagles improved from 36.7 to 48.3 percent between the two periods and made six of their 11 three pointers in the last 20 minutes of action. The Raiders held off BU for as long as they could, but the Eagles took their first lead of the game with 4:36 left to go and would more or less hold on to it the rest of the way. Benedictine outscored the Raiders 18-7 over the last seven minutes of play to take home the victory and send the Red & White back to Milwaukee with their fifth NACC loss of the year.

MSOE STAT TRACKER
Points – Travis Ballard (19)
Rebounds – Sammy Linn (6)
Assists – Michael Pitrof (6)
Steals – Josh Herzog (3)
Blocks – Matthew Kirmse & Sammy Linn (1)

WHO'S ON DECK
The Raiders will head to the state capital on Saturday afternoon, taking on Edgewood starting at 2:00 pm.

For up-to-the-minute MSOE Raiders news, visit us at www.go-raiders.com. You can also follow the Red & White on Twitter @MSOE_Raiders and @msoe_raiders on Instagram.