Romeoville, Ill - The Lewis University men's basketball team fell today at home 59-69 against McKendree University.
IMPACT PLAYERS
For the Flyers, Arius Alijosius (Riverside, Ill./Riverside-Brookfield) led the team in scoring with 21 points on 6-14 shooting, with five of those made shots being from three-point range. Ryan Hall's (Kettering, Ohio/Kettering Fairmont) efficient performance kept the Flyers in the game, as he came up second on team high scoring with 17 points on 5-7 shooting from the field, 50% from long range and a perfect 100% from the free throw line, as well as making a defensive effort by grabbing six rebounds. Cale Cosme (Chicago, Ill./Brother Rice) tied with Hall on team high rebound with six and led the Flyers in assists with seven.
For the visitors, Franklin Noah led in scoring and rebounds with 20 points on 8-13 shooting and eight rebounds in 30 minutes. Cha'vez Woods also saw a productive night on offense, scoring 17 points and getting a team high six assists.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Flyers started off, opening the score in under two minutes with a three pointer by Alijosius. After a tied score at the 14:24 mark, Lewis went up by one point and started becoming more productive in their offensive output during the first half. The Flyers had a lead as high as six, a lead they maintained for almost 6 minutes. Unfortunately for the Flyers, the visiting team regained control of the lead and once they did, they didn't lose it for the rest of the first half, having a lead as high as 11 points through the first 20 minutes of basketball.
Coming back from the locker rooms for the second half, the Flyers shot more efficiently, shooting 52.63% from the field and 45.45% from long range, an improvement from the 40.91% and 33.33% shooting efforts made in the first half.
Coming back from halftime trailing by eight points severely hurt the Flyers' chances of getting close to McKendree. The visitors knew how to take advantage of their scoring opportunities and kept their distance from the Flyers in the scoreboard, not losing the lead they had since the 8:37 mark in the first half and being up by 12 points with six minutes to go until the end of the game. The Flyers lost by double digits, with a final score of 59-69 in favor of McKendree. With this loss, Lewis' record moves to 4-20.
UP NEXT
The Flyers will be back in action this upcoming Thursday (Feb. 19), when they go on the road to face University of Illinois Springfield, with tip-off time set for 7:30 p.m.
For the latest news and updates on Lewis men's basketball, visit LewisFlyers.com and follow the Flyers on social media at @lewisflyersmbb on Instagram and @LewisMBBall on X.
