SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Lewis University's men's basketball team put up 51 points while shooting 74.1 percent from the field in the first half of its 83-63 win at Illinois Springfield on Thursday evening. The Flyers improve to 7-6, 5-1 GLVC while the Prairie Stars drop to 9-9. 4-6 GLVC.

Lewis opened the game on a 19-4 run as it seven of its first 12 shots from the floor including 3 three-pointers while holding UIS to just 2-of-10 shooting. Anthony Sayles Jr. (Evanston, Ill./Notre Dame College Prep), Bruno Williams (Milwaukee, Wis./Wisconsin Lutheran) and Deon Ejim (Toronto, Canda/TRC Academy) combined for 14 of the Flyers first 19 points in the contest.

The Prairie Stars cut Lewis' lead to six thanks to a 10-1 run in the span of 1:45 seconds but wouldn't get any closer as the Flyers continued to blister the nets at The Recreation and Athletic Center answering the UIS run with an 11-2 run of its own to push its lead back to double digits.

That lead eventually grew to 22 points at 51-29 on a jumper from Ejim with 0:55 left in the half but Chris Hamil's three cut Lewis' lead to 19 points at the intermission.

The Flyers hit 20-of-27 attempts from the field including all seven of their three-point attempts and shot 80 percent at the foul line. They outrebounded the Prairie Stars 15-9 and had 10 assists on their 20 made field goals.

Williams led Lewis with 15 points in the first 20 minutes while Connor Niego (Western Springs, Ill./Lyons Township) and Atakan Sahinkaya (Istanbul, Turkey/Perkiomen School) had eight points each.

UIS scored the first seven points of the second half before the Flyers went on a 12-2 run over a three-minute span to build a 22-point cushion. Beau Frericks (Cary, Ill./Cary Grove) came off the bench to score eight straight points in that run hitting a pair of three's and a jumper in the lane.

The Prairie Stars wouldn't get closer than 17 the rest of the contest as Lewis' lead ballooned to 28 points after Frericks' fourth triple of the half.

Lewis hit 12-of-22 shots (54.5 percent) in the second half to finish the game shooting a season-high 65.3 percent from the floor which included a season-high 13 three's on 16 attempts good for 81.3 percent. The Flyers had four players reach double figures in scoring led by Williams with 18 while Frericks added 16, 14 in the second half, points, Ejim finished with 12 points and Niego had 10 points.

Lewis outrebounded UIS 33-22 in the contest.

The Prairie Stars shot 40 percent (22-for-55) from the floor, were 9-of-28 from three and shot 67 percent at the foul line. Hamil led UIS with 16 points while Chase Robinson finished with 13 points.

The Flyers conclude their four-game road trip on Monday (Jan. 31) as they travel to Kirksville, Mo., to take on Truman State at 6 p.m. Monday's game is the makeup of the game that was originally scheduled for January 6.