MILWAUKEE, Wis. - The Rockford University men's basketball team fell 71-62 on the road Wednesday night to the MSOE Raiders. The game was really a tale of two halves. Rockford led by as many as ten points in the first half on multiple occasions, while MSOE led for just 16 seconds in the entire half. However, the Raiders controlled the second half, especially the final 4:06, where MSOE outscored Rockford 14-4. Another key factor in the outcome of the game came at the free throw line. The Regents went just 9-17 (52.9%) at the free throw line. Conversely, the Raiders were 19-23 (82.6%) at the charity stripe, including a perfect 8-8 over the final 3:17. Rockford has now lost five straight games at MSOE dating back to the 2017-18 season.
- After the two schools traded buckets over the first five minutes of the game, Rockford went on a 10-2 spurt, including scoring eight straight, to grab its largest lead of the day at 20-10. The Regents went 3-5 from the floor over a span of 2:53 seconds, with Matthew Elliott draining a three to give his team a 10-point lead.
- MSOE was able to cut the lead down to five, before Rockford pushed its advantage back to ten on a Tre Miller layup at the 7:04 mark and then again with 5:16 remaining in the half following a Cooper Jackson jumper.
- Rockford's lead hovered around eight for the remainder of the half, until MSOE's Donovan Carter made a layup in the closing seconds to make it a 38-32 game heading into the break.
- MSOE continued to chip away at the deficit in the opening minutes of the second half.
- After MSOE made it a three-point game at 39-36, Rockford scored the next five points to regain control of the game. Jaden Bell got things started with a three-pointer, and Micah Swanson closed the run with a bucket to make it a 44-36 RU advantage.
- The pesky Raiders once again fought back and cut the lead down to a single point twice before ultimately taking a 47-46 lead, their first since the opening few minutes of the game.
- There were a total of six lead changes and three ties over the next 8:13.
- Unfortunately, the final lead change belonged to the Raiders on a made jumper with just over four minutes left. MSOE missed just one shot attempt from the field and free throw line combined over the remainder of the game.
- MSOE led by as many as ten points with 53 seconds left before ultimately winning by a final score of 71-62.
- Micah Swanson led Rockford with 17 points on an impressive 7-of-9 shooting performance. He also had 4 rebounds and 2 blocks.
- Jaden Bell finished with 10 points, 3 rebounds, an assist and a steal.
- Matthew Elliott added 9 points, 3 rebounds and an assist off the bench.
- Tre Miller had 8 points, 5 rebounds, an assist and a steal.
