Feb. 7, 2004

Box Score

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. - Lewis withstood Wisconsin-Parkside's early second-half challenge Saturday and beat the Rangers 80-63 in Great Lakes Valley Conference men's basketball action.

Lewis, ranked 13th nationally in NCAA Division II and first in the Great Lakes Region, improved to 19-2 overall and 13-1 in the GLVC with its third consecutive win. The Flyers are 12-0 at Neil Carey Arena this season.

Monta McGhee posted his seventh double-double of the season, a 24-point, 10-rebound effort. Austin Real tallied 17 points and three assists, Sidney Holmes netted 14 points and three steals, and Demitrius Hunter collected 10 points, eight assists, three steals and two blocked shots.

Wisconsin-Parkside (6-15, 2-12) had early success with a four-corners-type offense. The Rangers made their first five shots, including two 3-pointers, and led 12-11 at the 14:15 mark of the first half.

Holmes' steal and dunk ignited an 11-0 Lewis run that gave the Flyers their first double-digit lead, 22-12, with 8:58 left.

After Josh Skatrud's layup ended Parkside's six-minute scoring drought, Lewis embarked on a 16-3 spurt that spanned almost six minutes and gave the Flyers their largest lead of the half, 38-17, with 2:30 left. McGhee scored eight points during the run.

Parkside closed the gap to 43-27 at the break with the help of 3-pointers by Gareth Malkowski and Dean Pogodzinski.

But the Rangers made a more serious move in the opening moments of the second half. While Lewis missed its first four shots, Parkside used a 3-pointer and layup by Malkowski, Dominick Melton's layup and a basket by Marc Forbush to slice the Flyer lead to 43-36 with 17:36 remaining.

Lewis regrouped and regained control following a 30-second timeout. The Flyers scored the next 13 points and led 56-36 at the 12:54 mark, and the Rangers drew no closer than 15 points the rest of the way.

Both teams shot impressively. Lewis finished at 56.5 percent overall and 50 percent (7 of 14) from 3-point range after shooting 66.7 percent overall (5 of 7 from 3-point distance) in the first half. Parkside finished at 53.2 percent overall and 46.7 percent (7 of 15 in 3-point shots) following a first half that saw the Rangers shoot 64.7 percent overall and 83.3 percent (5 of 6) from beyond the arc.

The difference was at the foul line. Parkside committed 20 fouls to Lewis' 10, and the Flyers cashed in by sinking 21 of 26 at the stripe (80.8 percent) to the Rangers' 6 of 7. Lewis also helped its cause by committing just seven turnovers, its sixth single-digit turnover game of the season.

Malkowski led UWP with 17 points and six assists. Forbush scored 14 points, Skatrud scored 12 and Pogodzinski, the Rangers' leading scorer (16.5 ppg), was held to 10.

The Flyers, who own a three-game lead over Southern Indiana in the GLVC standings with six games to play, play at Indianapolis Feb. 12 and at Northern Kentucky Feb. 14.