On Sunday, the final day of February coincided with the final game of the Lake Erie College men's basketball regular season schedule. Unfortunately, the Storm weren't able to follow that up with a victory, losing to Walsh, 78-74.

Even before the opening tipoff, Lake Erie had something to celebrate, as senior Harrison Riggs was honored in front of his family and teammates for his final game. And made sure that his last game with the Storm was a great one, posting a double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds on the afternoon. The Storm were missing sophomore guard Jacob Plantz, a key contributor whose absence left a hole in the Lake Erie lineup that it would be impossible to fully make up for. Guard Jeramie Burge did all he could to patch that hole though, dropping 22 points of his own. Forward Jackson Burdyshaw added eight points and four rebounds off the bench.

But Walsh also came to play, with guard Christian Montague and forward Milan Square scoring 21 and 20 points respectively. After a half of play, Walsh led the game, 38-33. Over the course of the entire contest, no one side took total command of the momentum, with the biggest lead for either team coming at only 11. In fact, both Walsh and Lake Erie held the lead for roughly the same amount of time overall.

Where the differences lied between the two teams on this afternoon were in how each side scored its points. Lake Erie outscored Walsh in bench points, 16-7, but Walsh topped the Storm in points from turnovers, points in the paint, and fast break points. And that was what ended up earning the Cavaliers the victory. Down the stretch, the Storm pushed and fought as hard as they could, but they simply couldn't stop Walsh at the end of the game. Walsh left Painesville having taken both the win from Lake Erie and eliminating them from contention for the G-MAC playoffs.

With that, the Storm men's basketball team ends the year with a 4-14 record in this unusual season marked by COVID. But head coach Kyle Conley's bunch looks to learn from 2020-21 and look forward to the future.