Feb. 23, 2006

Box Score

ROMEOVILLE - John Loeffelholz scored a game-high and career-high 19 points and tied his career best of four assists to lead Lewis to a 75-73 Great Lakes Valley Conference victory over Bellarmine Thursday night.

Lewis (13-13, 7-11 GLVC) came into the game needing a win, plus losses by Wisconsin-Parkside and Rockhurst, to have a chance to earn the eighth and final spot in next week's GLVC Championship tournament. Wisconsin-Parkside cooperated by losing 68-65 to Northern Kentucky, but Rockhurst upset 11th-ranked Southern Illinois Edwardsville 71-49 in Edwardsville.

With one game remaining, Wisconsin-Parkside and Rockhurst are 8-10 in the conference and Lewis is 7-11. In a three-way deadlock at 8-11, Lewis would own a tiebreaker (a better in-division record) over fellow GLVC East member Wisconsin-Parkside. That would advance the Flyers to a two-way tie with Rockhurst, which holds the advantage over Lewis in a complicated tiebreaking system.

However, that doesn't diminish what Lewis accomplished in a must-win situation Thursday. And, by beating Bellarmine, the Flyers have put themselves in position to finish with a winning record if they knock off Northern Kentucky on Saturday.

Neither team led by more than three points in the first 11:45 of the first half, and eight lead changes and five ties occurred. Bellarmine (13-13, 10-8) gained some breathing room with an 8-0 run that gave the Knights a 29-22 lead at the 7:41 mark.

Lewis responded with an 11-4 spurt, holding Bellarmine to just one field goal the rest of the half, to pull even at 33 by intermission. The Flyers continued their surge well into the second half, outscoring the Knights 22-5 to take their biggest lead, 55-38, with 12:03 remaining.

The Lewis lead was 65-48 with 5:27 to play when Bellarmine started to chip away. After the Knights trimmed their deficit to 73-70, Pat Monaghan sank two free throws that seemingly put the game on ice for the Flyers with just 6 seconds left.

After inbounding the ball, Bellarmine threw a pass down the court that Branden Hunter intercepted. Hunter called, and was granted, a timeout as he was falling out of bounds, but the Flyers had no timeouts remaining and were assessed a technical foul. Matt Otte made both ensuing free throws to narrow the Lewis lead to 75-72 with 2 seconds to play.

Jamie Jackson stole the Lewis inbounds pass near mid-court and was fouled. Jackson intentionally missed his second free throw after sinking the first, but Hunter grabbed the rebound, his team-high sixth of the game, to prevent the Knights from trying a potential buzzer-beater.

Loeffelholz was 6-of-7 from the floor and 7-of-7 at the foul line, helping Lewis to a .786 success rate (22-of-28) at the stripe. He collected five rebounds, all on the offensive end.

Monaghan scored 16 points, while Hunter tallied 13 points, three assists, three steals and three blocked shots. Stephan Bolt added 13 points and five rebounds.

Jackson led the Bellarmine scoring effort with 16 points, while Montonio Blake gathered a game-high eight rebounds and Marcus Flynn notched a game-high five assists.

The Flyers conclude the season Saturday against Northern Kentucky. Game time at Neil Carey Arena is 3 p.m.