After bolting to a 40-15 halftime advantage on its way to a 68-61 win at Edgewood College last night, Benedictine (10-2) battled host MSOE (3-7) in the first 20 minutes. The first 10 minutes of the game featured five ties, and neither squad led by more than two. The visitors broke through with a 10-1 run over a three-plus minute span, capped by a Tim Swanson lay-up.
Benedictine took another nine-point lead (25-16) with 5:30 left in the first stanza on a Ramey jumper, but MSOE scored nine of the last 12 points of the half to close to within 28-25 at the break.
Ramey had five points in the opening minutes of the second half to stake Benedictine to a 36-28 lead, but MSOE cut that lead to 36-34 by scoring the next six points, including a trey from Tim Shafel. Another Shafel jumper with 9:00 left knotted the game at 43-43. With the game tied at 51-51 with three minutes remaining, Jeff Mikos hit a trey and Scott Murphy followed with another bucket to give MSOE a 56-51 advantage.
The Eagles closed with a 10-2 run, with Ramey doing all of the scoring. He hit back-to-back treys on consecutive possessions to erase that lead, then hit four free throws in the final seconds to seal up the win.
Ramey added four assists to his game-high 23 points, while Swanson tallied a career-high 11 off the bench on 4-of-5 shooting. Marcus Jackson added 11 of his own, while Matt Harrison collected his first career double-double with 10 points and a career-high 10 boards.
Benedictine, which has won five straight games, will have a stern test in its next outing. The Eagles will host sixth-ranked Illinois Wesleyan University on Sunday, January 2.