The battle between Aurora and Southwest Tuesday night started in an odd way, as Aurora was slapped with a technical in pre-game warmups for dunking the ball, so free-throws opened the game instead of a jump ball. This put Aurora in a funk and it took a few game minutes to adjust, but the Houn' Dawgs did adjust, winning at home by 15, 74-59.

Aurora managed to pressure the Trojans early and with seven first-quarter points from Corey Gregory, the Houn's opened with a 20-12 lead after one quarter.

The Houn' Dawgs opened the second period on a 13-4 run, which helped them to double Southwest's point total, 33-16. The Trojans leader, junior Blake Barnes scored 10 straight Southwest points in the quarter to keep them in the game and only down by 10 at the halftime break, 36-26.

Aurora (3-1) came out in the third quarter and opened the second half with renewed energy, especially on the defensive end as they confused the Trojans over and over and then on the offensive end would settle for nothing besides a driving shot in the lane. This commitment helped the Houn' Dawgs build a 15 point advantage, 43-28. But the Trojans were pesky, going on an 8-0 run themselves to stay in the game and cut Aurora's lead to just seven, 43-36.

The Houn's always seemed to have an answer, however, as they closed out the quarter with a 12-3 run to lead Southwest 57-41 after three quarters.

Aurora stretched the lead to as many as 21 in the fourth quarter and came away with the convincing 74-59 win.

"Our tempo was not great tonight," said Aurora head coach Daniel Cutbirth. "We try to keep pushing and they weren't allowing much of that."
Aurora was led by senior Garrett Bader's 21 points, nine of which were in the fourth quarter. Fellow senior Corey Gregory added 19 for the Houn' Dawgs.

Southwest was led by Barnes' 32, which led all scorers. Barnes scored 12 of those in the fourth quarter and had six treys in the game.