Box Score The Lindenwood Lions outscored the Illinois Springfield Prairie Stars 49-29 in the second half to erase a halftime deficit en route to an 84-68 win in St. Charles on Tuesday night.
The visiting Prairie Stars started the game on fire, hitting their first eight of 10 shots to take a 17-7 lead. Lindenwood slowly but surely cut into the Illinois Springfield lead and tied the game up with 10:18 to play after
Michael Boos connected on a layup.
After the Boos basket, the visitors would retake the lead but at the 7:22 mark Boos would give the Lions their first lead of the game. The lead extended to four with just over four minutes to play in the opening half. Trailing by four, the Prairie Stars went onto score the final eight points of the half and take the lead into the locker room.
The second half started with the visitors extending its lead up to six but after back-to-back threes by Boos and
Tyler Ressel the Lions would tie the score. Over the next eight minutes, the teams would trade punches and the lead several times.
With just over eight minutes to play in the game Lindenwood trailed by one. For the Lions that would be the last time they were behind.
Darris Smith hit threes on consecutive possessions to give Lindenwood a five point edge. Â
Illinois Springfield would get the score within two but that would be as close as the visitors could get. The Lions closed the game on a 20-7 run and cruised to the victory.
Five Lions scored in double figures led by Boos' season-high 20 points. Ressel chipped in with 17 while
Darris Smith scored 15.
Garrett Reeg and
Sam Mader were forces down low with 12 and 10 points respectively. Reeg also led the team in rebounds with seven.
Lindenwood shot 47 percent from the field and 39 percent from behind the arc. The Lions defense forced the visitors into 12 turnovers and held them to 45 percent shooting.
Lindenwood heads into Thanksgiving break with a record of 4-4. The Lions will start their conference portion of the schedule on Dec. 5 against Central Oklahoma in St. Charles.Â
