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Louisville, Ky. - The Lewis University men's basketball team defended, took care of and shot the ball well as the Flyers turned in an all-around effort in their 70-62 NCAA Midwest Regional victory over No. 8 ranked UW-Parkside at Bellarmine University's Knights Hall on Saturday (March 14) afternoon. The win is the Flyers' first NCAA Tournament victory since 2002.

The Flyers held All-GLVC First Team selections Zygimantas Riauka (7-for-14, 14 points) and Jimmy Gavin (3-for-9, 12 points)  to 26 points on 10-for-23 shooting. As a team, the Rangers shot 36.2% (21-for-58) from the field and 29.6% (8-for-27) from beyond the arc.

Lewis also minimized its mistakes, turning the ball over a season-low five times, and shot 52.6% (10-for-19) from three-point range.

"It was a great team win," Lewis head men's basketball coach Scott Trost said. "I thought our effort was great from start to finish and we did a tremendous job defensively on Riauka and Gavin.

"I'm happy and proud of our team today."

With the win, Lewis improves to 22-8 on the season and UW-Parkside ends the 2014-15 campaign with a mark of 26-4. Lewis advances to play third-seeded and No. 15 Indianapolis in the second round of the tournament at 5 PM ET on Sunday (March 15).

Lewis freshman guard Max Strus (Hickory Hills, Ill./Stagg) led all scorers with 20 points - including four three-pointers - and a game-high nine rebounds and three steals. Lewis senior guard Jeff Jarosz (Lyons, Ill./Morton) had 15 points and was a perfect 3-for-3 from three-point range, while classmate Ryan Jackson (Bolingbrook, Ill./Riverside-Brookfield) had 12 points, four rebounds and a game-high four assists.

The Flyers led for a majority of the second half, building a 55-44 lead over the Rangers with 9:10 remaining in the contest. UWP responded with an 11-2 run behind five points from Gavin and four points from Riauka to cut Lewis' lead to 56-55 with 4:55 left in the game.

That would be as close as UWP would get, as the Flyers answered with an 11-3 run, highlighted by a pair of Jarosz trifectas to put the game out of reach.