ROBERT LEE III PULLS DOWN SCHOOL-RECORD 19 REBOUNDS, MEN’S BASKETBALL WINS OVER EVANGEL

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – In one of the grittiest performances of the season, Avila men's basketball recorded a hard-fought win on their home court over Evangel on Wednesday night, 78-67.

The intrastate rivals were evenly-matched in the first half, with five Avila players picking up five or more points and Robert Lee III pulling down nine rebounds – seven on the offensive glass.

Lee would dominate the glass for the entire 40 minutes, setting a school record with an astonishing 19 rebounds.

The teams entered the halftime locker room with Avila leading 40-39.

As you would expect from conference rivals, it was a chippy 40 minutes with five technical fouls called between the teams. The technicals contributed to a combined 58 free throw attempts and 50 personal fouls.

In the second half, Avila pulled away, outscoring Evangel 38-28 in the final 20 minutes.

The Eagles were led in the second half with 13 points from Xavier Kahube and nine from Jordan Majeed. Majeed's 15 total points in the contest were his second-highest scoring total of the season.

Kahube's 18 total points were a team-high. Kahube and Majeed were joined by Brennan Jeffries with 13 and Lee with 10 as double-figure scorers.

On the defensive end, Avila had four players with multiple steals, including three from Jeffries, who was also over the stat sheet – adding five rebounds and six assists to his night.

One of the unsung heroes of the game was freshman Logan Bishop, who played in a career-high 17 minutes, putting up a big six points, two assists and two steals, including a huge defensive stop at the end of the first half.

As a team, the Eagles scored 22 points off of 16 Valor turnovers and notched 12 second-chance points. Avila's stymie defense held Evangel to under 40 percent from the field and just 18 percent from behind the arc.

Avila (9-7, 6-5) will continue its four-games-in-eight-days stretch on Saturday at McPherson at 3 PM.

(photo credit: Ali Nassir)