ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Lewis University's men's basketball team second half rally came up short in a 65-57 loss at William Jewell on Saturday afternoon. The Flyers drop to 11-8, 9-3 GLVC while the Cardinals improve to 12-12, 8-8 GLVC.
Lewis never led in the contest but did tie it early on a three-pointer from
Deon Ejim (Toronto, Canda/TRC Academy). WJC pushed its lead to six but the Flyers scored five straight points in the span of 0:32 to cut the Cardinal lead to 25-24. That would be the closest Lewis got the rest of the way as William Jewell closed the half on a 13-4 run to take a 10-point lead into the intermission.
The Cardinals continued their hot shooting to open the second half outscoring the Flyers 16-6 over the first seven minutes of the stanza to build its largest lead of the game at 54-34 on a three-pointer from John Zimmerman.
Lewis went on a 19-5 run over the next 10 minutes to cut the margin to six on two free throws from Ejim with less than three minutes to play. The Flyers had two chances to get closer but
Bruno Williams (Milwaukee, Wis./Wisconsin Lutheran) missed a three and then Ejim missed a layup after getting an offensive rebound.
A foul by Ejim sent Grant Stubbs to the line and he hit both free throws to extend the lead back to eight. Williams answered with a jumper to get the margin to six with 1:40 remaining. The Cardinals hit 1-of-2 free throws and then
Beau Frericks (Cary, Ill./Cary Grove) hit a layup to cut to five with 0:27 left but WJC hit three of four free throws in the final 0:23 to secure the victory.
Ejim finished with a double-double scoring 17 points and grabbing 10 rebounds to lead Lewis while
Bruno Williams (Milwaukee, Wis./Wisconsin Lutheran) finished with 10 points. The Flyers shot 46 percent from the field but were held to 4-of-18 shooting from three and shot 83 percent at the charity stripe.
Mason Alexander led all scorers with 19 points hitting five three's in the contest while Jordan Jermain added 13 points. The Cardinals finished the contest shooting 46 percent from the floor and were 11-of-23 from three and shot 73 percent at the foul line.
Lewis begins its final home game of the season next Thursday against Drury at 7:30 p.m. at Neil Carey Arena.
