Box Score (PDF) 

FULTON, Mo. – For the third time this season, sophomore center Faris Verlasevic tied his career-high as his game-high 23 points on Thursday night at William Woods helped the Lyon College men's basketball team to a 76-71 win over the Owls. With the win, Lyon improved to 16-11 (10-9 AMC), while WWU dropped to 16-10 (13-6 AMC).

Lyon jumped out to an early 5-2 lead over the Owls in the first two minutes of the game after a bucket by Emir Sabic. William Woods began to hit its stride from there after a three-pointer by Shad Kimble gave the Owls a 6-5 lead just thirty seconds later. The Owls went on a 16-5 run from there and extended their lead to 22-11 with 9:05 left in the half.

The Scots answered back with a big run of their own over the next three-plus minutes to pull back within four. Ray Price opened up the run with a put-back before Verlasevic capped an 11-4 run by the Scots with a put-back of his own.

The Owls found their rhythm offensively again as they increased their lead to 12 at 36-24, only to see the Scots answer back once more. Zalek Sharp hit a triple before Sabic scored three points of his own the old-fashioned three-point play. The Scots continued to chip away down the stretch in the first half as Verlasevic nailed a three before a pair of free throws by Price with just over 30 seconds remaining cut the deficit to 36-35 at the half.

After trailing for much of the first five minutes of the second half, Lyon began to take over the game after a jumper by Verlasevic knotted the score at 46-46. Price broke the tie with a jumper in the next possession for the Scots before Lyon went on a run and took its largest lead of the game at 67-55 with 5:30 remaining on a bucket by Eric Moses. The Scots sealed the win at the charity stripe as Verlasevic and Price hit two free throws each down the stretch.

The Scots will play their final road game of the regular season on Saturday at Columbia College at 3 p.m.

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