Dec. 21, 2005

Box Score

ROMEOVILLE - Stephan Bolt collected game highs of 19 points and eight rebounds, and Lewis shut down a potent Illinois-Springfield offense in an 83-70 non-conference victory Wednesday night at Neil Carey Arena.

The Flyers (7-3) held Illinois-Springfield well under its 85.5 points-per-game average and limited the Prairie Stars (8-7) to a .366 shooting mark, the lowest percentage by a Lewis opponent this season.

Meanwhile, Lewis connected at a .500 (28-of-56) clip from the floor, giving the Flyers two consecutive games of 50 percent or higher. And, as usual, Lewis enjoyed a tremendous advantage at the foul line, sinking a season-high 25 free throws (25-of-33) to Illinois-Springfield's 10-of-14.

The Flyers - who, at 7-3, are three games ahead of last season's 10-game record of 4-6 - have outscored their opponents 167-90 at the stripe this season, a tremendous improvement over last year's 432-347 deficit.

Brandon Dagans was 7-of-7 at the line and finished with 17 points, five rebounds and four assists. Dustin Warfield tied his season high of 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting, Branden Hunter chipped in 10 points, four assists and two blocked shots, and John Loeffelholz grabbed six rebounds as Lewis earned a 40-33 edge on the glass.

The teams traded big offensive displays in the first half, which ended with the Flyers leading 41-37.

Bolt scored six points and Warfield tallied the other five in an 11-2 spurt that gave Lewis its largest first-half lead, 17-9, with 13:48 to go. The Prairie Stars of the NAIA Division I American Midwest Conference responded with a 22-7 run, including 3-pointers from four different players, that gave them their largest cushion of the contest, 31-24, with 6:00 remaining.

The Flyers stormed back with a 17-6 run to conclude the half. Dagans scored eight of the 17, and his basket with :49 left put Lewis ahead to stay, 38-37.

Two Bolt baskets, a Hunter 3-pointer and a Warfield layup gave the Flyers their first double-digit cushion, 50-39, at the 16:06 mark of the second half. Lewis stretched the margin to 15 before a 9-2 Illinois-Springfield run lifted the Prairie Stars to within eight at 65-57, but Kendall Patterson (Chicago, Ill./Kenwood)'s conventional 3-point play put the Flyer advantage back into double figures to stay.

Kelvin Johnson (17 points, six rebounds), Curtis Collins (13 points, eight rebounds), Antonio Puckett (11 points, four assists) and Cory Farmer (nine assists) led Illinois-Springfield.

The Flyers travel to Milwaukee Dec. 28 to challenge Marquette at the Bradley Center. Game time is 7 p.m.