Nov. 26, 2004

Box Score

EDWARDSVILLE - Seniors Randy Wright and DeAndre Williams posted career scoring highs, but the sharpshooting of Southern Illinois Edwardsville's Anthony Jones lifted SIUE to a 79-68 Great Lakes Valley Conference victory Friday night.

Wright scored a game-high 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting, and Williams added 12 points and four assists. John Loeffelholz contributed 14 points and seven rebounds for the Flyers, who fell to 2-1 overall and 0-1 in the GLVC.

Jones was 6-of-7 from 3-point range to lead the Cougars (3-2, 1-0) to a 9-of-18 team performance from beyond the arc. He finished with 22 points and was joined in double figures by Joel Jaye (15), Dan Heimos (15) and Tim Bauersachs (12). That quartet combined for a 25-of-36 (.694) shooting effort.

Although SIUE led the entire game, the visiting Flyers made several runs to stay within striking distance.

The Cougars built a 24-11 lead midway through the first half before a 7-0 Flyer spurt in just over a minute made it 24-18 at the 9:00 mark.

Lewis experienced a scoring drought over the next four minutes and saw SIUE build its cushion back to 12 points. But seven late points by Wright and a Williams 3-pointer trimmed the Cougar advantage to 35-28 at intermission.

When Loeffelholz hit a short jumper with 16:30 to play, the Flyers trailed just 40-36. SIUE followed with a 9-0 run that seemed to re-establish control for the Cougars, and they went on to establish their biggest lead of the night, 54-40, with 11:09 left.

Defending GLVC champion Lewis wasn't finished, however. Trailing 59-47 at the 9:03 mark, the Flyers scored the next six points to make it 59-53 with 7:07 remaining.

But SIUE regained momentum on its next possession with Jones' final 3-pointer of the game, followed by a Michael Sams 3-pointer, and the Cougars made all eight of their free-throw attempts in the last minute to preserve the victory.

The Flyers were 12-of-14 (.857) at the foul line, all in the second half, and shot .519 (14-of-27) from the floor in the final period to finish at .464 for the game.

Lewis travels to Quincy for another GLVC game Sunday afternoon.