By Tim Schmitt
LEWISTON — Anthony Nelson grabbed an outlet pass and saw the unthinkable. Unfathomable. Something he’d probably never seen in three years of running the point on Monteagle Ridge.
With the Purple Eagles primed to attack, coach Joe Mihalich had both hands up.
A rare stop sign.
The circumstances were unique, though. Tyrone Lewis, the team’s leading scorer and a preseason all-Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference first-teamer, had dove headfirst into the N-Zone trying to save a loose ball on defense. And Lewis either got caught up in the student fun, or assumed his teammates could handle an offensive possession without him. Either way, he stayed down for a handful of seconds while the Purple Eagles waited for him to come back into the picture.
Eventually, No. 2 streaked down the right side of the court, passing in front of Mihalich, who tilted his head and asked, “you OK?”
Lewis just smiled.
That’s been Niagara’s season in a nutshell. Since Lewis injured his ankle at Auburn, the Purple Eagles have been patiently waiting for him to return — or more specific, return to full speed. Even without Lewis, the Purple Eagles are a dangerous bunch. But when the dynamic scorer is on his game, Niagara is the kind of team that could again go dancing.
On Sunday against Loyola, he sure looked primed and ready. After playing just 18 minutes in a comfortable win over Manhattan on Friday, Lewis rarely left the floor on Sunday, playing all but two minutes.
After the contest, Greyhounds’ coach Jimmy Patsos offered his expert medical opinion.
“Tyrone Lewis looks pretty healthy to me,” Patsos said. “Everyone tells me how hurt he was. He didn’t look hurt to me.”
Indeed, Lewis did look good, finishing with a game-high 21 points and exhibiting the zigs and zags that will have him finish as one of the program’s best. Lewis buried a trio of 3-pointers and is now needs just four to take the school’s career mark from Lorenzo Miles. He’s just 13 steals from stripping Mike Phillips of the all-time high in that category.
And when he gets 44 more points and 11 more assists, he’ll become just the fifth player in MAAC history to register 1,500 points, 200 assists and 200 steals, joining illustrious company like Doug Overton and Randy Woods — both of whom played for LaSalle when Mihalich was an assistant there — as well as Jason Rowe and Keydren Clark.
But while Lewis will leave his name all over the Niagara record book, Mihalich insists what he’ll remember most about the senior after he leaves is that smile, the same one that reassured his coach that he was fine on Sunday.
“This is my 32nd year doing this,” Mihalich said. “I’ve been around some special people. I’ve never been around somebody that lights a room up the way Tyrone Lewis does. This whole university has been blessed.”
Lewis said his mom taught him to keep the smile prevalent, that “there’s people always watching on and off the court. ... She just always told me to have a smile on the court and enjoy the game.”
On Sunday, Lewis was smiling. His teammates were smiling. The nearly 2,000 in attendance at the Gallagher Center were smiling.
And Mihalich, who’d been waiting to exhale after watching his senior star go down weeks ago with a potentially season-ending injury, had a wide smile of his own.
The coach even joked after the game that he’d had a hand in Lewis’ success from long range.
“Too many cooks can spoil the soup,” Mihalich said. “If somebody needs work with their shot, one guy takes him. Coach (Luke) Dobrich took Bilal (Benn). Coach (Phil) Martelli (Jr.) took Anthony.”
Then Mihalich turned to Lewis.
“You’ll have the record right?” he said smiling.
“I took Tyrone.”
Contact sports editor Tim Schmitt at 282-2311, ext. 2266.
