ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – The Lewis men's basketball team held off a late rally to defeat Rockhurst 73-70 on Saturday afternoon at Neil Carey Arena. The Flyers, ranked 22nd in this week's D2SIDA Media poll, improved to 13-4 overall and 5-3 in the GLVC while the Hawks fell to 10-9 and 4-5 in GLVC action.

Lewis got off to a slow start missing seven of its first eight shots but Rockhurst wasn't much better making only two of its first 10 shots.

With the game tied at 11 things got a little chippy. Dusan Mahorcic (Montenegro, Serbia/Notre Dame College Prep) went up for a layup and was fouled by Eddie Muench. Mahorcic was knocked to the floor and Connor Evans was called for a technical for stepping on Mahorcic. After a review Mahorcic was also given a technical foul for retaliating against Evans.

The Flyers couldn't take advantage though making only two of the four free throws.

Muench hit both of his free throws on the technical and then hit it a three to put the Hawks back in front.

The two sides continued to go back-and-forth until Lewis began to gain some separation with a 10-2 run to build a five-point lead on a three-pointer by Adam Pischke (Cary, Ill./Marian Central Catholic) with 4:22 left in the half.

The Hawks punched right back tying the game on a pair of free throws from Nick Volz and Muench hit his second trey of the stanza to knot the score at 26.

The Flyers outscored Rockhurst 7-5 over the final 2:21 to take a 33-31 advantage into the locker room at the break.

After playing only 10 minutes in the first half due to foul trouble Anthony D'Avanzo (Harwood Heights, Ill./Notre Dame) made up for it scoring six of Lewis' first 10 points in the second half as the Flyers built a 43-33 lead less than three minutes into the frame.

Rockhurst cut the lead to five on a layup by Evans but Lewis countered with another run, this one 10-2, to build its largest lead of the game at 53-40 with 11:38 remaining.

The Hawks cut the lead to six but the Flyers stretched it back to 10 on a layup from Pischke on the break.

Rockhurst got as close as one with less than a minute to play on a putback of a missed free throw by Quinton Curry.

Delaney Blaylock (Wyoming, Mich./Godwin Heights) missed a three-pointer on the other end with 0:37 to go and the Hawks had a chance to take the lead. Blaylock hustled back to block Chris Hamil's potential go-ahead layup with 29.3 left.

The Hawks had a chance to grab the lead but Curtis Lewis, the reigning GLVC Freshman of the Year, missed a jumper with 0:12 left and Donovan Oliver (Kewanee, Ill./Kewanee) got the rebound and was fouled with 0:08 remaining.

Oliver, shooting a 1-and-1, hit both free throws to put Lewis in front 73-70. Rockhurst raced the ball up the floor and Lewis was fouled with 0:05 left. He missed the front end of the 1-and-1 as Blaylock secured the rebound and was fouled with 3.3 seconds to go. He had a chance to ice the game but missed both free throws.

The Hawks got the rebound but the ball was knocked away and Curry grabbed it and fired a desperation heave at the buzzer which fell short.

The Flyers finished the game shooting 50 percent (27-for-54) from the field including 4-of-15 from three and shot 65 percent at the charity stripe. D'Avanzo scored 16 of his 18 points in the second half to match his career-high. Pischke chipped in with 12 while Blaylock and McCullum had 11 each and Oliver added 10 more.

Rockhurst was led in scoring by Hamil with a game-high 20 points while Lewis had 12, Muench added 11 and Curry finished with 10. The Hawks shot 43 percent (25-for-58) from the floor, were 9-of-24 from three and shot 61 percent at the foul line.

Lewis returns to action on Thursday (Jan. 31) when they travel to Springfield to take on Illinois Springfield at 7:30 p.m.