ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Lewis University's men's basketball team wraps up its three-game homestand this week hosting Southern Indiana on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. and the University of Indianapolis on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. The Flyers (6-4, 6-4 GLVC) look to snap their two-game losing streak.
Last week Lewis dropped a 69-54 decision at Illinois Springfield on Tuesday and then fell to Missouri-St. Louis 69-64 at home on Thursday. Junior
Bruno Williams (Milwaukee, Wis./Wisconsin Lutheran) led all scorers with a season-high 21 points in the contest against the Tritons and was joined in double figures by senior
Connor Niego (Western Springs, Ill./Lyons Township) with 13 points while senior
Trevian Bell (Joliet, Ill./Joliet West) added 12 points.
The Flyers are ranked third in the latest GLVC Point Rating System with a rating of 3.65. The top eight teams in the final point rating rankings will qualify for the GLVC Tournament which will begin on March 2nd with the top four teams hosting a quarterfinal contest. The semifinals and championship contest will be hosted by the highest remaining seed the weekend of March 6-7.
Thursday's contest is a matchup between the top two teams in the GLVC's East Division with Southern Indiana sitting atop the standings with a record of 5-3 overall and in the GLVC with Lewis right behind them.
The Screaming Eagles have won three of their last four contests after splitting a pair of contests against UIndy last weekend. USI suffered a 62-61 defeat at Indianapolis on Thursday but bounced back on Saturday winning the rematch 80-75 in Evansville.
The Screaming Eagles have four players averaging double figures in scoring and are led by Josh Price with 16.4 points per contest. Emmanuel Little is adding 15.1 points per outing while Mateo Rivera and Jelani Simmons are contributing 13.8 and 11.0 points per game respectively.
USI leads the all-time series against Lewis 48-27 and has won the last two meetings. The two teams will meet again next Tuesday (Jan. 26) in Evansville. The game was originally scheduled for Dec. 5 but had to be postponed due to COVID concerns with the men's basketball program at USI.
The Greyhounds (1-8, 1-8 GLVC) picked up their first win of the season last Thursday with the win over the Screaming Eagles. Jesse Bingham finished with a game-high 21 points and was joined in double figures by Dee Montgomery and Aaron Etherington with 13 points apiece. Bingham's two free throws with 0:44 left in the game broke a 60-all tie and proved to be the difference.
Saturday's contest marks the 85th all-time meeting between Lewis and UIndy with the Flyers holding a 48-36 advantage in the series. Lewis won the first matchup this season 77-64 in Indianapolis on Dec. 15.
