Jan. 26, 2006

Box Score

ROMEOVILLE - Southern Illinois Edwardsville pulled away with a late run and went on to earn a hard-fought 67-58 Great Lakes Valley Conference victory over Lewis Thursday night at Neil Carey Arena.

SIUE, the No. 2 team in this week's NCAA Division II Great Lakes Region ranking, improved to 14-3 overall and 8-2 in the GLVC with its 10th straight win. Lewis (10-8, 4-6) lost its fourth in a row, the four defeats coming by an average of just 4.5 points.

The Cougars, who took the lead for good at the 5:40 mark of the first half, held a 51-41 advantage with 8:32 to play before a basket by Dustin Warfield, a free throw by John Loeffelholz and a layup by Kendall Patterson sliced the lead to 51-46 with 6:55 left.

But Nick Arth, who scored a game-high 14 points, tallied two consecutive buckets to trigger a 10-0 spurt that put the Cougars in front by 15 with 2:10 remaining.

Lewis led 20-16 midway through the first half before SIUE took command, outscoring the Flyers 18-8 down the stretch to take a 34-28 edge into the break.

Warfield led the Flyers with 13 points and was joined in double figures by Pat Monaghan (12) and Brandon Dagans (10). Stephan Bolt led all players with eight rebounds, Monaghan and Dagans had six apiece and Warfield grabbed five as Lewis edged SIUE 35-34 on the glass.

Arth added six rebounds and a game-high five assists to his scoring total, while Anthony Jones (3-of-4 from 3-point range) netted 13 points and Ryan Belcher collected seven rebounds.

Lewis hosts Quincy, an 81-80 overtime loser to Wisconsin-Parkside Thursday night, Saturday at 3 p.m.