Dec. 9, 2004

Box Score

ROMEOVILLE - Anthony Scala scored a career-high 32 points, including 24 in the second half, to lead the Lewis University men's basketball team to a 75-68 victory over Great Lakes Valley Conference rival Northern Kentucky Thursday.

The Flyers' first GLVC win in five tries this season evened their overall record at 4-4, while NKU fell to 5-3 overall and 2-3 in the league.

Scala also established career bests in field goals (11), field-goal attempts (21), 3-point field goals (8) and 3-point field-goal attempts (16) in recording Lewis' first 30-point effort since Monta McGhee scored 30 at Kentucky Wesleyan last season. He was 8 of 11 overall and 6 of 8 from 3-point range in the second half as Lewis overcame a 38-30 halftime deficit.

DeAndre Williams also gave the Flyers a major spark in the second half, collecting all of his 11 points and 5 rebounds after intermission. Williams also had 6 assists for the game, 3 in each half.

Steve Turner added 10 points, Randy Wright had 8 points and 5 rebounds, and Dustin Warfield tied Williams and Wright for team rebounding honors with 5 boards.

NKU shot .583 to Lewis' .406 and outscored the Flyers 5-0 at the foul line in building its 8-point halftime lead.

The Norse scored the game's first 5 points before the Flyers forged a 10-1 run for a 10-6 advantage.

The game was tied at 12 and 14 before NKU took the first-half lead for good with a Kevin Reinhardt 3-pointer at the 10:24 mark. Later, the Norse assembled a 10-2 run to lead 36-26 before settling for the 8-point margin at the break.

NKU owned a 44-36 edge with 16:12 to play when Scala and the Flyers caught fire.

In a 4-minute span, Lewis outscored NKU 14-0. Turner's layup began the barrage, Scala followed with a 3-pointer, a 2-pointer and two more treys, and John Loeffelholz made the back end of a 2-shot foul to punctuate the flurry.

Northern Kentucky pulled to within 3 points twice in the next few moments before Lewis embarked on another outburst. Beginning with another Scala trifecta at the 10:23 mark and ending at 4:38, the Flyers outscored the Norse 13-3 to grab their biggest lead of the evening, 65-52.

Williams followed Scala's 3-pointer with one of his own and a layup. Another Scala trey and Turner's layup concluded the run that saw NKU score just three free throws while missing all five of its field-goal attempts. In fact, the Norse went 6:33 without a field goal.

Northern Kentucky got back in it, however, with a 9-0 surge that took a little less than 2 minutes. Scala's final 3-pointer of the night gave Lewis some breathing room and a 68-61 lead with 2:31 left, though it was still a game after NKU scored the next three points to make it 68-64 with 1:36 to play.

But the Flyers regained control on their next possession with a Williams layup, and they added three free throws before NKU scored again with just 24 seconds left.

Lewis turned the tables in shooting accuracy in the second half, connecting at a .586 clip to NKU's .435. The Norse were just 1 of 10 from 3-point range in the final 20 minutes.

As important as Scala's long-range shooting was, the Flyers' defense on NKU 3-point specialist Mike Kelsey was just as big. Kelsey managed 13 points but was 0 of 8 from beyond the arc.

Derek Smith led NKU with 18 points and 7 rebounds, Harrison Morton scored 14 points and Reinhardt netted 12 points off the bench.

Lewis earned a 32-28 rebounding advantage, including 11 offensive boards, and committed a season-low 9 turnovers.

The Flyers travel to Indianapolis for a Saturday afternoon GLVC contest.