The Aquinas men's basketball team tied its road game at IU-Northwest with 39 seconds remaining, but the home Red Hawks scored five of the final six points in the contest to escape with the 77-73 victory. IU-Northwest converted an acrobatic layup and 3-of-4 free throws in the final 20 seconds to hold off AQ in a tight non-conference game in Gary, Indiana.

It was the third game of the season for Aquinas and the third nationally-ranked opponent for the Saints. AQ played #1 Spring Arbor and #4 Indiana Wesleyan last weekend (Oct. 25-26) to open the season before taking on IU-Northwest, which was listed in the Receiving Votes category of the preseason top-25 poll.

IU-Northwest wins its season opener and is 1-0, while Aquinas falls to 0-3 on the year.

The Saints trailed by as many as a dozen points in the first half, but rallied back to take a second half lead and knotted the game at 72-all on a Beau LePage three-pointer with 39 seconds to play. IU-Northwest responded with a go-ahead layup with 20 seconds left, while Myles Patten split a pair of free throws on the other end of the floor with 12 seconds remaining to make it 74-73.

A pair of free throws by the Red Hawks made it a 76-73 contest and after AQ missed a game-tying three-pointer in the closing seconds, IU-Northwest grabbed the rebound and split two free throws to seal the win.

The Red Hawks shot 43.3 percent from the floor and went 18-of-22 at the line, while Aquinas managed a 40.3 percent clip from the field, but just 8-of-12 at the charity stripe. Both teams drained seven three-pointers, though AQ took 31 triple tries compared to 18 for IU-Northwest. All seven of Aquinas' three-point makes came in the second half.

Four Saints reached double-digits in the scoring column, including a team-high 16 points from Andrew Myers, who knocked down four three-pointers. He added five boards and two assists. DeShawn Lewis totaled 13 points, three rebounds, and two steals, going 6-of-13 from the field in a game-high 36 minutes.

Justin Lary supplied 11 points and six rebounds, while connecting on 2-of-5 triple tries. Deric Murray also scored 11 points in just 14 minutes, hitting all three free throw attempts. Patten was 4-for-4 from the field and posted nine points and five rebounds in 17 minutes.

Jesse Hillis tied Lary with a team-high six rebounds and LePage led AQ with four assists.
 
The Saints stay on the road for a Wednesday night (Nov. 6) game at Roosevelt (Ill.), with tip-off scheduled for 8:00 p.m.