Men's Basketball used a 21-6 run to open the second half to distance themselves from (RV) Park University and then held off a last-minute run by the Pirates to earn a 73-69 win on Saturday.

Tied at 37-all at the break, Benedictine's second-half opening run stretched over roughly eight minutes to turn the halftime tie into as much as a 15-point lead for the Ravens. Matt Austin helped fuel the run for Benedictine. He connected on 13 of his game-high 29 during the run. The Ravens maintained a double-figure lead through most of the final 10 minutes of play until the Pirates pulled with seven points with three minutes remaining.

Half of the Pirates second-half point total of 32 points came at the charity stripe. Park connected on 16 of 18 free throws in the second half to finish the game at 87.0 percent. Defensively, the Ravens limited the Pirates to 8 second-half field goals while holding the Pirates scoreless from beyond the arc. Benedictine only took 12 free throws in the second half, hitting 9. Of those 9, 4 came out of the bonus inside the final seconds of the game. Jaiden Bristol connected on four straight free throws in the final 12 seconds to help keep the Ravens in the lead.

Austin finished the game connecting on 6 of 7 3-pointers with 9 field goals and shooting 5 of 6 at the free throw line. His scoring total was one off his Raven career-high of 30 points set during the 2019-20 season. His total did set a new mark for single-game individual scoring. Tyson Cathy was the only other Raven in double figures, giving the team a spark of the bench with 11 points. Benedictine finished with a 19-9 advantage in bench scoring. Bristol and Ahmad Louis finished with 8 points each while Saxton Thuston finished with 7 points and 10 rebounds. 

Defensively, the Ravens held three of the Pirates top four scorers below their season averages with the lone exception of Cory Reeves who led the Pirates with 17 points after averaging 12.7 in seven games this season. The Ravens also held the Pirates well below their scoring average, which stood at 82.8 points per game headed into Saturday's matchup.

Benedictine closes out their 2021 schedule at 2-2 in Heart play at 8-5 overall. They are off until Jan. 2 when they travel to Fayette, Mo., to take on (RV) Central Methodist University.