LEAD

RIVER FOREST, Ill. -- The Sabercats had a 9-8 lead early on in the Windy City, but that was the most they had to celebrate.

After challenging Dominican University late in the first half, the Sabercats saw the Stars pull away in the second to secure an 86-65 win.

OVERVIEW

• Result: Maranatha 65-86 Dominican
• Venue: Igini Sports Forum, Dominican University
• Location: River Forest, Ill.
• Attendance: 200
• Records: MBU (0-4), DU (2-0)

STORY

The Sabercats may have had some mojo coming into tonight because they beat Dominican for the first time last year. But the Sabercats quickly learned that they were in for a challenging night, as Dominican pulled out to the lead and almost held it for the entire first half. Two consecutive layups from Aaron Sanders and five early points from Brenden Caldwell made the game interesting early on, but the Stars began to align, and Dominican jumped out to a comfortable lead in the middle of the half.

Late free throws from Caleb Moultrie and Stephen Wilkerson made it a one-point game with a minute left in the first half, but that was as close as MBU would come for the rest of the night.

After a 43-37 scoreline at halftime, Dominican outscored Maranatha 43-28 in the second half to take a comfortable win. Dominican began to press, and they were rewarded for it, forcing Maranatha off their rhythm as a team and as individuals. As the MBU passes were off the mark and the shots off-target, the Stars pulled away to the 21-point win.

Sanders led Maranatha with a near-career-high 20 points. Wilkerson chipped in 18 of his own and Jed Mayhak added eight points in the loss.

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MBU Starters: 2- Ball, 3- Mayhak, 5- Sanders, 13- Caldwell, 23- Wilkerson

SOUND BITE

"Dominican is a good team, and we give credit to them," said Coach Joel Borchardt. "We stuck with them in the first half and we were playing well as a team. But the second half, they just amped up the pressure and we kind of just pulled apart and decided that we didn't want to play as a team, and that hurt. But those things just come with experience. [Dominican] did a really good job of forcing us to do things we didn't want to do, so hopefully we can use games like this to push us to be better down the stretch."

STATS

• Sanders: 20 PTS, 6 REB, 3 AST
• Wilkerson: 18 PTS, 6 REB
• Mayhak: 8 PTS, 5 REB, 2 STL
• Caldwell: 7 PTS
• Last year: The Sabercats won 76-65 at home last year
• Series: Dominican now leads the all-time series 17-1

OPPONENTS

• Dominican competes in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NCAA DIII)
• Dominican opened the season with a 64-61 win at North Park
• Dominican will begin NACC conference play Saturday against Concordia Wisconsin 

NEXT

The Sabercats will travel to Knox College for a 7:00 p.m. tipoff Thursday. Follow at mbusabercats.com/schedule.