ST. LOUIS, Mo. - The Lewis University men's basketball team defeated Indianapolis 73-57 Saturday (March 6) in a Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament Semifinal contest at the Mark Twain Building. The Flyers move to 13-9 on the season, while Indianapolis finishes its season at 11-12.

With the win the Flyers, the No. 5 seed in the tournament, advance to the GLVC Championship game Sunday at 1 p.m. against No. 6 seed Drury in St. Louis. The Panthers moved to the finals with a 79-63 win over No. 2 seed Missouri St-Louis. The winner of tomorrow afternoon's contest will receive the league's automatic bid to the Division II Midwest Regional which begins next Saturday (March 13) at Screaming Eagle Arena in Evansville, Ind.

Lewis came out strong with the first five points of the game and built its lead up to seven points at the 11:07 mark of the first half on a Trevian Bell (Joliet, Ill./Joliet West) layup. The Greyhounds answered with eight straight points to take their first lead of the game at 19-18.

Indianapolis, the No. 8 seed, took as big as a four point lead at 29-25 with 6:36 remaining in the first half before a Connor Niego (Western Springs, Ill./Lyons Township) three-pointer brought the lead back to within a point.

The Flyers regained the lead at the half as a pair of free throws by Atakan Sahinkaya (Istanbul, Turkey/Perkiomen School) gave Lewis a 38-37 halftime advantage.

The two teams went back-and-forth for the first nine minutes of the second half and a basket by Vlado Zrnic (Greendale, Wis./Greendale) with 11:13 left in the game gave the Flyers the lead for good at 49-48.

That basket proved to be the start of a 17-0 Lewis run over 5 minutes, 23 seconds of game action. Zrnic followed his basket with a pair of free throws, then Dre Bell (Detroit, Mich./River Rouge) converted a four-point play.

Artese Stapleton (Chicago, Ill./Kenwood) tallied a three-pointer and a pair of layups, while Sahinkaya mixed in a jumper. By the time the run was over Lewis led 64-48 with 6:15 remaining.

From there the Flyers maintained their lead as they advance to their first GLVC championship game since 2017 and look to win the title for the first time since 2016.

Stapleton led the Flyers with a career-high 23 points, while Zrnic had 13 points and Brandon McCombs (Jacksonville, Ill./Jacksonville) tallied 10 rebounds. 

For the game Lewis shot 48.3 percent (28-of-58), while the Greyhounds were 46 percent (23-for-50). Lewis held a 38-26 rebounding advantage.