BATESVILLE, Ark. – The Lyon College men's basketball team had four players score in double figures on Friday night as the Scots earned a 90-78 season-opening victory over Huston-Tillotson inside Becknell Gymnasium. Dominique Loyd and Ray Price led the way for the Scots with a team-high 16 points each, while Grant Patterson and Jonathan Iliya chipped in 14 and 13 points, respectively.

Huston-Tillotson attempted to get out and run against the Scots to open up the game, but Lyon was able to control the pace of play and jumped out to an early 9-3 lead over the Rams with 16:38 left in the first half on a jumper in the paint by Price.

The Rams answered back with an 11-2 run over the next two minutes to take their first lead of the game before the Scots called a timeout. Lyon was able to settle back in as Loyd and Faris Verlasevic knocked down back-to-back jumpers to give the Scots a 15-14 advantage.

The two teams went on to exchange leads midway through the opening half until Loyd began to take over offensively for the Scots. With the score tied at 30-30 with 5:52 remaining in the half, Lyon went on a 10-4 run over the next two minutes, with Loyd accounting for all 10 points in the run for the Scots. Lyon went on to build its lead to as many as nine points at 48-39 late in the first half on a bucket by Iliya. The Rams managed to cut the deficit to eight at 50-42 on a free throw by Jeremy Soloman.

Lyon weathered the storm at the start of the second half as the Rams opened up with an 8-0 run out of the break to knot the score at 50-50. A three-pointer by Hunter Daley ended the Rams' run before Iliya scored on a contested bucket in the pain to push the Scots' lead up to five at 55-50.

The Scots held onto the lead the rest of the way as they pushed their advantage to 13 points on a pair of free throws by Patterson with 5:28 remaining. The Rams managed to cut the deficit to single-digits momentarily, but a pair of free throws by Price with 10 seconds left sealed the 12-point win for the Scots.

Aloysius James led all scorers with a game-high 29 points for the Rams.

The Scots will return to action on Nov. 7 with a non-conference road game at Texas A&M-Texarkana at 7:30 p.m.

Men's Basketball Contact: Matt Jagodzinski
870-307-7516 | matthew.jagodzinski@lyon.edu
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