PAINESVILLE, Ohio -- The Lake Erie College Storm men's basketball team hosted the Ashland Eagles in front of a wild crowd on Thursday, January 12. The Storm would play a tight contest but fall down the stretch, 69-65.

Lake Erie and Jacob Plantz got off to a very hot start, outscoring the Eagles 14-5 to start the game with Plantz knocking down two threes in the process. From there it would be back and forth basketball between the two teams, with yet another contest coming down to the final minutes.

With 2:13 left, Kevin Peterson would knock down a huge three to give the Storm a two point lead. The Eagles would then draw a foul and tie the game back up but two missed shots and a turnover would give Ashland back the ball which they would manage to convert into two points and the lead with seven seconds left. Peterson would then be fouled with two seconds remaining, needing to make both of his shots to tie things up once again. Unfortunately he would miss his first shot and the intentionally missed second shot would fail to be recovered by the Storm, giving the Eagles back the ball and allowing them to secure a 69-65 victory.

With both teams playing very similarly the whole contest, the key to victory for Ashland appeared to be their ability to draw the foul as they would attempt 30 free throws while the Storm attempted just 10.

Plantz would lead the way with 17 points while shooting 7-16 and 2-7 from deep while Peterson would contribute 11 points of his own (4-9 FG, 3-5 3PT) while also adding three steals.

The loss takes the Storm's record to 8-7 on the year with a 5-4 record in conference play. This marks the second straight loss for Lake Erie and they look to break that streak on Saturday January 14 at home against the visiting Malone Pioneers at 3:00 PM