(NORTH CANTON, Ohio) – Overtime may have overcome Lake Erie on Thursday, but the second time was a charm as the Storm handed Walsh its first loss by a score of 88-85 Saturday afternoon. It came in spectacular fashion as well as Gabe Kynard (Sr., Toledo, Ohio) drained a 3-pointer as time expired during the extra session.

With the score tied at 85-85 in overtime, Walsh had an opportunity to take the lead but missed an attempt inside the paint that was pulled in by Harrison Riggs (Jr., Toledo, Ohio). Kynard attempted a jumper near the point that missed, but the ball was last touched by Walsh going out of bounds leaving the Storm with one final attempt.

After a beautiful move to create separation, Kynard made the most of it by hitting a step-back 3-pointer on the left wing as the clock hit zeros.

"We tried to run one of our out-of-bound plays we have in our package because we didn't have any timeouts, we got it into Gabe, and, quite frankly, it was just a great player making an unbelievable play to help his team win," said Coach Conley.

It was a miraculous comeback for the Green and White as it appeared preseason G-MAC favorite Walsh had all the control with a 19-point lead up 72-53 with just under nine minutes to go in the game.

However, Kynard had other ideas as he sparked a 26-7 during the rest of regulation to send it to overtime. He outscored the Cavaliers during that time as he scored 18 of his game-high and new career best 34 points in the final 8:53 of regulation.

"First of all, I need to give Walsh some credit. They came out at halftime really, really aggressive getting downhill and driving the basketball at us," Conley said about the opening of the second half. "We were putting them on the foul line. We couldn't check them out. They were getting offensive rebounds. They were very aggressive to start the half and were able to build a big lead. I just got into the guys that if we were going to get back into this game, we're going to have to find a way to compete and play with more of an edge for this last 10 minutes.

Jackson Burdyshaw (RS-Jr., Perry, Ohio) was pivotal in the comeback as he made a pair of jumpers, one of which was a 3-pointer to bring the deficit back to single digits. Bench points were also a key cog in the wheel for Lake Erie as it outscored Walsh 18-6. He finished with eight points and three rebounds in 11 minutes.

"We put him in at the 10-minute mark when we were down 19. He made some shots, got on the board, and his minutes cannot go unnoticed in this game. He was phenomenal. He really changed the energy of the game, and I'm just really proud of Jackson. He's paid his dues and his performance today when his number was called was nothing short of fantastic."

Outside of Kynard, Jacob Plantz (Fr., Genoa, Ohio) was the only other Storm player in double-figures with 15 points. He was 5-of-8 overall and recorded his first double-double with 11 rebounds.

"He plays so hard and made so many effort plays in this game by rebounding the ball and defending and coming up with tough 50/50 plays we needed to make to get back into the game," Conley added.

Kynard finished 11-of-19 with seven caroms. He reached double-digits alone from the charity stripe where he was 10-for-11.

"He's one of the best players I think at our level in the country, and I think today was one of those games it would be hard to disagree with that," said Conley.

The win against the defending G-MAC tournament champion Cavaliers is the Storm's fifth in the last six meetings. They'll meet again in the regular season finale at the Osborne Center.

Lake Erie now returns home to rest up a bit before its next game a week away from today. The Storm will then open up a four-game home stand with Ohio Valley. Tip-off with the Fighting Scots is set for 1 p.m. with the women's game to follow at 3.