MILWAUKEE, Wis. - The Rockford University men's basketball team saw its excellent season come to a close with a 71-55 defeat on Thursday night in the NACC Tournament Semifinals at Wisconsin Lutheran College. Rockford fell behind by as many as 26 points early in the second half, but fought and battled all the way back to within ten with six minutes remaining. Unfortunately, Rockford's offense was never quite firing on all cylinders and thus the Regents were unable to close the gap any further. However, the Regents did play an outstanding game on the defensive end of the court. Rockford held both the NACC's top scoring offense and top shooting team to well under its season averages in both categories. Despite the loss, it was a memorable year for the Regents. Rockford's 18 wins was the most in a single-season since 2004-05, and the Regents won a NACC Tournament game and advanced to the semifinals for the first time in three years.
- The game went back-and-forth for the first nine minutes, with Wisconsin Lutheran's lead hovering around three points.
- However, the Warriors then used an 8-0 run over a span of nearly two minutes to jump out in front 25-14 with 9:27 left in the first half.
- Rockford's Noody Lacy and Jaden Bell proceeded to combine to score the next five points and make it just a six-point game at the 3:51 mark.
- Unfortunately, WLC outscored Rockford 14-4 the remainder of the half and took a 39-23 advantage into the break.
- Wisconsin Lutheran continued to flex its muscle at the beginning of the second half, outscoring Rockford 10-0 over the first 2:15, and extending its lead to a game-high 26 points.
- It was at that point that Rockford finally began to find its rhythm on the offensive end of the court.
- The Regents promptly scored the next nine points, capped off by a Matthew Elliott triple, to inch their way back into the game.
- Rockford continued to fight and battle, and eventually cut the deficit all the way down to 10 points, 61-51, on a Tre Miller jumper with 5:56 left in regulation.
- Unfortunately, that was as close as the Regents were able to get, as Rockford fell by a final score of 71-55.
- Jaden Bell recorded his first double-double of the season on Thursday. Bell finished with 10 points, a team-high 10 rebounds, 3 steals and an assist.
- Matthew Elliott had 11 points, 8 rebounds and an assist.
- Tre Miller tallied a season-high 10 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist and 1 steal off the bench.
- Kevin Diemer added 11 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists. Diemer finishes his collegiate career with 1,575 points (7th all-time) and 836 rebounds (6th all-time).
