MILWAUKEE, Wis. - The Rockford University Regents dropped a hard-fought nail-biter, 77-75 on the road Saturday to the NACC-leading Wisconsin Lutheran College Warriors. The entire matchup was played within an 11-point spread, and there were a total of eight ties and 12 lead changes, with the largest lead for either team being just seven points. Saturday's meeting came down to the final possession, as Rockford had the ball and trailed by three points with five seconds left. The Warriors smartly fouled
Charles Burnell, to prevent Rockford from being able attempt a game-tying three-pointer. Burnell would make the first free throw and then intentionally miss the second. The Regents were able to corral the offensive rebound, but unfortunately, the putback attempt was off the mark and Wisconsin Lutheran held on for the two-point win.
- Wisconsin Lutheran hit its first three shot attempts, including a pair of triples, to take an early five-point advantage.
- With the Warriors out in front 12-7 at the 14:45 mark, Rockford scored the next seven points to take its first lead of the afternoon. A trio of Regents found the bottom of the net over that span, led by a three points from Micah Swanson.
- The Regents would eventually build their lead up to as many as four points with 6:05 left in the half, following a pair of Mateo Fernandez Solari free throws and an Ashton Singleton made jumper.
- However, the Warriors later closed the half on a 7-0 run and took a 40-34 advantage into the locker room.
- Fortunately, Rockford opened the second half on an 11-4 spurt of its own and retook the lead at 45-44. Kevin Diemer led the offensive charge with five points, while Charles Burnell, Noody Lacey and Micah Swanson each had two.
- The Warriors answered right back by scoring the next eight points and taking the largest lead of the game for either team.
- The back and forth nature of the game continued, with the Regents using an 8-0 run of their own to once again jump back in front by a single point. This time it was Ashton Singleton who led the Regents with a trio of points over that span.
- With WLC back out in front 69-63 at the 3:43 mark, Rockford scored eight of the next ten points and tied the game off a Charles Burnell jumper with 87 seconds left.
- However, Wisconsin Lutheran was able to pull back in front by as many as three points on multiple occasions, with the last such instance coming with just five second left in regulation.
- The Warriors then chose to foul Rockford and send the Regents to the free throw line, instead of allowing them to possibly make a game-tying three to force overtime.
- Rockford's Charles Burnell made the first free throw and then intentionally missed the second to try and give his team a chance to tie it. Kevin Diemer was able to come down with the offensive rebound, but unfortunately, could not connect on the fade away putback at the buzzer.
- Kevin Diemer finished with a team-high 19 points, 9 rebounds, 1 block and 1 steal. He is now just 15 points shy of becoming the 26th player in program history to score 1,000 points.
- Charles Burnell added 13 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 assist.
- Micah Swanson had 13 points, 9 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal off the bench.
- Daelyn Franklin tallied 7 points, a career-high 8 rebounds and 2 assists.
