ST. CHARLES, Mo. - Lindenwood Men's Basketball (10-5, 4-0 OVC) picked up their fourth conference win of the season on Saturday afternoon in Hyland Arena with an 83-80 win over Southern Indiana.
Milos Nenadic and
Dontrez Williams led the charge offensively for the second straight game, as Nenadic scored a game-high 22 points on 9-14 shooting while Williams finished with a career-high 21 points.
In the first half the Lions were up 15-12 with 13:33 to go after USI's Ismail Habib converted on both of his free throw attempts. The Black and Gold quickly went on a 7-0 run to go up by 10 after
Kevin Anthony,
Robert Lewis, and
Anias Futrell all scored in the paint with Futrell also adding a free throw to make it a 22-12 game. Lindenwood got up by as much as 11 in the first half after
Dontrez Williams scored on a layup to make it a 32-21 LU lead with 8:06 to go, but the Screaming Eagles kept chipping away and eventually took a 45-43 lead into the locker room.
Milos Nenadic led the Lions in the first half with 14 points on 6-9 shooting, while Futrell had nine points with two three pointers. Southern Indiana shot 51.5% from the floor in the opening 20 minutes of play and were led by Habib who had 11 points on 4-8 shooting.
Coming out of the break, the Lions went on an extended 14-7 run thanks to four points each from Futrell and Williams. The end of the run came after
Mekhi Cooper found Futrell in transition for a dunk to put Lindenwood up by five at 57-52 with 13:50 to go in the contest. Lindenwood went up by as many as nine in the second half, but every time the Lions tried to pull away, the Screaming Eagles would respond. With 11:44 to go, USI cut the deficit to three after a made free throw from Sheridan Sharp. Nenadic and Williams scored back-to-back buckets to push the lead to seven with 10:20 to go, but the two teams kept trading baskets as the Lions hung on to a five point lead with 8:21 to go. Later in the half, Williams connected on a three pointer with less than three minutes to play to push the lead back out to nine at 80-71. However, the Screaming Eagles clawed their way back into it and went on a 9-3 run to cut the lead to 83-80 with six seconds to go. Southern Indiana got possession of the ball off a missed free throw by the Lions and had a chance to tie the game at the buzzer, but the three point attempt was no good and the Lions hung on to take the victory.
Lindenwood was able to limit the Screaming Eagles to 18% from the three point line in the second half and scored 30 of their 40 points in the paint to establish a presence down low.
Dontrez Williams scored 16 of his 21 points in the second half and was 7-11 from the floor in the last 20 minutes of play.
The Lions will now hit the road and travel across the river for their next OVC matchup when they play at SIUE on Tuesday, January 6. Tip off is at 7:30 p.m.
