Nov. 19, 2005

Box Score

ROMEOVILLE - Freshman guard Brandon Dagans hit a driving shot with less than three seconds left to give a resilient Lewis men's basketball team a thrilling 58-56 win over Michigan Tech Saturday night in the finale of the GLVC-GLIAC Challenge.

Dagans' game-winner, which gave the Flyers (3-0) just their second lead of the night, came just moments after Pat Monaghan (Hoffman Estates, Ill./Fremd)'s long 3-pointer from the right wing tied the game at 56.

On the ensuing Michigan Tech possession, Lewis - which had a foul to give before putting the Huskies into the bonus - committed a foul with 0:09 to play.

Tech (0-2) couldn't get anyone open against a smothering Flyer defense on the out-of-bounds play, and the turnover gave Lewis the ball in the backcourt. Dagans took the inbounds pass and drove in for the winning bucket to keep the Flyers undefeated.

Lewis took a brief 3-2 lead on a Branden Hunter 3-pointer, but Tech assembled a 16-2 run that gave the Huskies their largest lead, 18-5, with 10:30 left in the first half.

The Flyers battled their way through cold first-half shooting (21 percent) and relied on tight defense and the play of Dustin Warfield to get back in the game. Tech was held to just seven points in the latter half of the opening stanza, and Lewis trailed just 25-19 at the break as Warfield scored all seven of his points in the final 8:50 of the half.

Tech was on the verge of taking command at various points in the second half, but Lewis clawed its way back each time. Two Monaghan 3-pointers and a Hunter trey sliced an eight-point Huskie lead to 31-30, while baskets by Ryan Sharp and John Loeffelholz, another Hunter triple and Monaghan's conventional 3-point play helped the Flyers trim a seven-point deficit to 43-42 at the 8:18 mark.

Robby Springborn and Radayl Richardson buried 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to give the Huskies a 51-42 lead, and what seemed to be unstoppable momentum, with 5:55 left. But the Flyers turned up the defensive heat and outscored the visitors 16-5 the rest of the way, thrilling a near-capacity Homecoming crowd.

Monaghan's 15 points led a balanced Lewis scoring attack that also included nine points each by Hunter and Dagans, eight points by Loeffelholz and seven points by Stephan Bolt. Loeffelholz and Bolt tied for team rebounding honors with five boards apiece. Kendall Patterson had four assists and Hunter made three steals.

The Flyers' 58-percent shooting in the second half included a 5-of-10 effort from 3-point range. Lewis committed just five turnovers in the second half. The Flyers were edged 32-31 on the glass but collected an impressive 12 offensive rebounds.

Richardson and Craig Genung netted 14 points apiece for Tech, and Springborn scored 11 points. Richardson and Ed Ross each collected a game-high seven rebounds.