ROLLA, Mo. – The Lewis University men's basketball team fell to Missouri S&T 80-61 Saturday (Feb. 26) in the Great Lakes Valley Conference regular season finale for both teams. The Flyers finish the regular season 14-10 overall, 12-5 in the GLVC, while the Miners finish 11-16, 7-13 in the GLVC.
 
The Flyers pulled ahead for the first time in the game 5-4 on a Beau Frericks (Cary, Ill./Cary Grove) three-pointer. A Deon Ejim (Toronto, Canda/TRC Academy) basket and then three-point play extended the lead to 10-6. The Miners came back with a 9-3 run to take a 15-13 lead with 12:29 left in the first half.
 
The two teams traded baskets from there with Missouri S&T holding onto a narrow lead at 22-21 with 7:53 left in the half. The Miners pulled ahead 25-21, but Bruno Williams (Milwaukee, Wis./Wisconsin Lutheran) answered with a basket to make it a two-point game. The lead grew to seven with five straight from the Miners before a Dre Bell (Detroit, Mich./River Rouge) three pointer cut the lead to 30-26 with 3:51 left in the half.
 
However, Missouri S&T responded with six more in a row to build a 36-26 lead before a pair of Frericks free throws made it a 36-28 game at the half.
 
Frericks opened the second half with a basket to cut the lead to six, but the Miners built the lead back to 10 at 42-32 with 16:59 remaining. Another Frericks basket and three Ejim free throws cut the lead to five with 15:35 remaining.
 
Williams brought it back to five points for a final time with 14:11 left at 46-41, but a 10-0 Miner run opened up the lead to 56-41 with 11:10 left.
 
A Frericks three-pointer got the Flyers back to within 11 points at 68-57 with 4:27 remaining, but that was the closest they would get.
 
Ejim led Lewis with 16 points, while Frericks had 12 points and Williams scored 11 to go with a team-high six rebounds. The Flyers shot 33.3 percent (23-of-69) from the floor and 18.2 percent (4-of-22) from the three-point line. The Miners shot 47.5 percent (28-of-59) from the floor and 34.8 percent (8-for-23) from beyond the arc.

Lewis, the GLVC East Divison Champion, is the No. 2 seed in the GLVC Tournament and will play host to No. 15 seed Maryville at 7:15 p.m. Monday.