Feb. 18, 2010

Box Score

Men's Basketball: UIS 75, Lewis 74 in PDF Format

Photo Gallery

Romeoville, Ill. - A valiant rally by the Lewis University men's basketball team from a 17-point second-half deficit fell short as the Flyers could not overcome UIS' 14 trifectas on the Prairie Stars way to the 75-74 Great Lakes Valley Conference win at Neil Carey Arena on Thursday (Feb. 18) night.

UIS senior guard Richard Oruche posted a game-high 22 points, including four three-pointers, to propel the Prairie Stars' offense. UIS reserve Ryan Thornton knocked down five three-pointers to finish with 15 points, while guard Brandon Farmer added 12 points in the win.

"It's tough to beat a team when they hit 14 three-pointers," Lewis head men's basketball coach Scott Trost said. "We just couldn't stop them. Too many times tonight they got good looks at the basket and we weren't anywhere near them.

"I don't think we competed as hard as we needed to," Trost continued. "(The rally) was too much, too little, too late."

With the win, UIS improves to 11-12 on the season and 7-10 in GLVC action, while the Flyers drop to 15-11 on the campaign and 7-10 in conference play.

Lewis sophomore guard Chris McClellan (Wheeling, Ill./Buffalo Grove) set a career-high with five three-pointers and topped the Flyers with 21 points. Sophomore forward Justin Jarosz (Homer Glen, Ill./Lockport) scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half, while sophomore center Marty Strus (Hickory Hills, Ill./Stagg) and junior guard Dennis Thomas, Jr. (Milwaukee, Wis./Bradley Tech) each scored 10 points in the loss.

For the evening, UIS converted 58.3% (14-for-24) of their three-point attempts and only attempted 19 shots from inside the arc against the Flyers. Their biggest lead of the game was a 60-43 advantage with 9:32 left in the contest following a DeAndre Miranda (4 points) jumper.

Despite the deficit, Lewis would not go away quietly as they went on a 24-8 run over the next 7:22 to bring the Flyers to within one point at 68-67 with 2:10 remaining in the second half. During that span, Jarosz (12 points) and McClellan (10 points) combined for 22 of those tallies.

The score would remain that way for the next 90 seconds, before Oruche converted a pair of charity tosses with 38 ticks left in the stanza to push UIS ahead, 70-67.

Thomas would match Oruche's free throws a few seconds later to narrow UIS' advantage to 70-69 with 31 seconds remaining.

Oruche would draw another foul from the Flyers on the ensuing possession and knock down both of his free throws to put the Prairie Stars ahead 72-69 with 23 seconds left.

The next time down the court for the Flyers, Thomas would drive the lane and his lay-up was blocked by Chigozie Umeadi (4 points). UIS drew another foul and Farmer split a pair of free throws to push the Prairie Stars to a four-point advantage at 73-69 with 12 seconds remaining and they would never look back.

During the final 38 seconds of the game, UIS knocked down 7-for-8 of their free throw attempts.

Lewis returns to action on Saturday (Feb. 20) afternoon, as they welcome Quincy for a 3 PM tip-off at Neil Carey Arena for `Senior Day'.

A Catholic university sponsored by the De La Salle Christian Brothers, Lewis offers nearly 80 undergraduate majors and programs of study, accelerated degree completion options for working adults, various aviation programs and 22 graduate programs in nine fields. The 9th largest private, not-for-profit university in Illinois is being honored for the sixth consecutive year by The Princeton Review and U.S. News & World Report. For more information please visit www.lewisu.edu.

##LEWIS##