Rally Falls Short As Hillsdale Edges Lewis Men’s Hoops, 80-77

Flyers tie game with 39 seconds left after trailing by as many as 18 points in second half.

Hillsdale, Mich. – With 13 seconds remaining, Hillsdale junior Brent Eaton broke a 77-all deadlock with his fifth three-pointer of the game as the host Chargers held off a furious rally by the Lewis University men’s basketball team for the 80-77 in-region win over the Flyers at the Jesse Phillips Arena on Saturday (Nov. 27) afternoon.

   Eaton finished the game with 25 points on 9-for-14 shooting and 5-for-7 from beyond the arc. Eaton’s teammate Brad Guinane finished with 23 points on 9-for-12 shooting and 4-for-6 from three-point range. Chargers’ guard Tyler Gerber chipped in 10 points, including a pair of trifectas.

   Hillsdale shot 55.8% (29-for-52) from the field for the game and 54.5% (12-for-22) from three-point range. Lewis bounced back from a poor shooting first half and converted 64.0% (16-for-25) of their shots in the final stanza to finish the day shooting 50.0% (26-for-52) from the field.

   With the victory, Hillsdale improves to 6-0 on the season, while the Flyers are now 3-4 on the campaign.

   Lewis senior guard Dennis Thomas, Jr. (Milwaukee, Wis./Bradley Tech) and junior center Marty Strus (Hickory Hills, Ill./Stagg) topped the Flyers with 16 points apiece. Strus added a game-high eight rebounds on the afternoon.

   Junior point guard Chris McClellan (Buffalo Grove, Ill./Wheeling) posted 14 points, while sophomore guard David Bryant (Batavia, Ill./Batavia) came off the bench to score 13 points.

   Hillsdale was hot from the get-go, as the Chargers scored the first 12 points of the game and built a 16-point lead before heading into intermission with a 41-29 advantage. The Chargers extended that lead to 52-34 with 16:16 left in the game before the Flyers staged their comeback attempt.

   The Flyers, led by 10 points from Strus, went on a 43-25 run over the next 15:37 and tied the game up at 77 on a Thomas lay-up with 39 seconds remaining. Eaton and the Chargers, however, had an answer for the Flyers with some heroics of their own with the game-winning trifecta.    

   “The first half really killed us,” Lewis head men’s basketball coach Scott Trost said. “We looked discombobulated out there, but I’m really proud of our effort n the second half against a very good team.
   “They just made one more play than we did, so hopefully we can learn from this.”

   Lewis opens Great Lakes Valley conference action on Thursday (Dec. 2), as they head to St. Louis to take on Maryville for a 7:30 p.m. (CST) tip-off.