MILWAUKEE, Wis. - The Rockford University men's basketball team fell 86-57 on the road Wednesday night in the NACC Tournament Quarterfinals to the top-seeded and seventeenth-ranked Wisconsin Lutheran College Warriors. Wisconsin Lutheran opened the game on a 31-5 run and never looked back. The Warriors led by as many as 33 points and Rockford was only briefly able to get the deficit back under twenty early in the second half. In spite of how the season ended, it was another successful year for the Regents. Rockford finished the season with a 14-12 overall record to secure a program record fifth straight winning season. The Regents also tied the program record by qualifying for the NACC Tournament for the fifth consecutive year.
- Wisconsin Lutheran opened the game on a 31-5 run to take a 26-point lead with 6:12 left in the first half.
- The Warriors came out hitting on all cylinders. WLC was 12-of-21 from the floor to begin the game, while Rockford made just 2 of its first 15 shot attempts.
- Wisconsin Lutheran led by as many as 28 in the first half, before Micah Swanson and Noody Lacey combined to score the final four points and make it a 38-14 game heading into the break.
- Rockford did get off to an excellent start and was able to cut the deficit to under 20 early in the second half.
- The Regents used an 8-2 run over the first two and half minutes to trim the WLC lead down to 40-22. Rockford was 3-of-5 from the floor over that span, led by four points from Noody Lacey.
- Unfortunately, WLC promptly scored the next six points to increase its advantage back to 24 points and led by a game-high 33 points with 8:07 remaining.
- Rockford's Anthony Espensen gave the RU faithful something to cheer about down the stretch. Espensen connected on five straight three-point attempts over a span of about four minutes, which gave him six made triples in the second half.
- However, the Warriors still went on to win by a final score of 86-57.
- Anthony Espensen led all scorers with 23 points on 8-of-16 shooting and 3 rebounds.
- Micah Swanson tallied 13 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and a block.
- Noody Lacey had 8 points and 1 rebound.
- Jaden Bell finished with 6 points, 5 assists and 2 rebounds.
