RIVER FOREST, Ill. - The Regents (5-3, 4-1 NACC) won their third straight game and pulled within one-half game of first place in the NACC South Division on Friday, with an 83-82 win over Dominican University (1-4, 0-4 NACC). The Regents led by as many as 12 points in the first half but found themselves trailing by a point with less than 20 seconds remaining in the game. Fortunately, Kevin Diemer came through with a clutch layup with 13 seconds left to put Rockford back in front by a single point. The Stars had one last chance to win the game in the closing seconds, but missed a corner three to give Rockford a hard-fought victory. The Regents have now won three straight games against Dominican, all of which were decided by a last-second basket or in overtime. 

• The Regents and Stars battled back and forth over the opening portion of the game, with Rockford holding a slight 21-19 edge at the 12:29 mark. Offensively the Regents got a bulk of their scoring early on from just two players. Micah Swanson led the way with 7 points and Ashton Singleton added 6 points. 
• Rockford then seemed to find its rhythm from beyond the arc, after hitting back-to-back triples from Brandon Emerick and Daelyn Franklin to take at the time, a game-high 8-point lead. 
• Dominican was able to get back within six points, before Rockford used an 11-5 run to take the largest lead for either team at 41-29 with 5:51 remaining in the first half. Four different Regents scored over that span, led by 3 points apiece from Micah Swanson, De'Marius Bonds and Brandon Emerick. 
• The Stars were able to chop three points off the lead to give Rockford a 47-38 advantage at the break.
• Rockford had an excellent shooting performance over the opening 20 minutes. The Regents shot 48.5% from the floor, including going 53.8% from long range. Rockford was also a solid 8-for-10 at the free throw line. 
• The Regents' second half lead hovered around 6 points until midway through the period, when the Stars used a 7-2 run to tie the game at 59-59 with 10:41 remaining. 
• The game remained extremely close the rest of the way, with neither team leading by more than five points.
• There were a total of four lead changes and two ties over the final three minutes of play.  
• Vincent Eugene put Rockford up by two at the 2:44 mark, only to see Dominican hit a three on its very next possession and retake the lead at 78-77. 
• However, Kevin Diemer found the bottom of the net on Rockford's next two possessions to put his team out in front 81-78 with only 1:25 left. 
• Unfortunately, Dominican's KJ Redfield hit a three on the very next possession to knot the game at 81-81. 
• A couple of possessions later, the Stars found themselves at the free throw line with a chance to retake the lead. Dominican converted on 1-of-2 free throws to make it an 82-81 game with 32 seconds left. 
• Fortunately, Kevin Diemer connected on a spinning layup in the lane through traffic to put Rockford back in front 83-82, with 13 seconds remaining.
• The Stars were unable to convert on a corner three-point attempt in the final seconds, as Rockford secured a tough 83-82 win.

• Brandon Emerick finished with a team and season-high 26 points on 10-of-18 shooting, including going 5-of-11 from three-point range. He also added 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals to his totals. Emerick now needs just three steals to tie the school career record of 185 steals. 
• Kevin Diemer had 13 points and 13 rebounds for his third straight double-double. He rounded out his stat line with 5 assists and 2 blocks. 
• Micah Swanson scored a season-high 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting and had 5 rebounds and 3 assists off the bench. 
• Daelyn Franklin added a season-high 10 points and 1 assist off the bench. 

The RU men's basketball team returns to the court on Saturday, February 20 at Dominican University. Tip-off is set for 5 PM.