ERIE, Pennsylvania -- The Lake Erie men's basketball team played in the Gary Miller Classic Championship on Sunday afternoon against host Gannon University, falling 105-75. Ranked #9 in Division II earlier this week by the NABC Coaches, the Golden Knights took a 42-33 advantage into halftime and slowly built upon it, going up by as many as 34 points en route to winning the championship game.

The Storm drop their first game of the season after starting a program-best 5-0. They will look to get back in the win column against a talented Walsh University team on Thursday in their first inter-conference game of the season.

Game Recap

Eight minutes into the game, the Storm found themselves down 20-10, but their defense came alive and held the Golden Knights to just seven points over the next eight minutes, helping them battle all the way back to trail only 28-27. However, the home team responded with a 14-6 run to close out the half, taking a comfortable nine-point lead into the break.

Despite keeping it close through the first 20 minutes, an 8-0 Gannon run out of halftime pushed the deficit to 17, and the Storm never managed to get it back into single digits. While Lake Erie continued to compete, baskets were hard to come by, as their half-court offense struggled to find success against the athletic Golden Knights. Ultimately, the lack of tough shot-making proved decisive, as the Storm shot just 28/22/82 splits.

Analysis

Despite the 30-point margin, the Storm either won or were highly competitive in several key areas:

• Turnovers: 20-12 advantage, and 21 points off turnovers vs. 13 for Gannon

• Second-Chance Points: 15-13 LEC thanks to a 21-12 offensive rebounding advantage

• Bench Points: 37-34 LEC

• Free Throw & Field Goal Attempts: 28 free throws to Gannon's 27, and +17 field goal attempts overall

The lack of shot-making was the true difference, as 8/37 from deep (21.6%) isn't enough for the Storm to stay in contention. Worse, they shot 22/78 from the field (28.2%), their lowest mark in a game since the 2019-2020 season, when they went 16/59 (27.1%) in a 57-45 loss to Trevecca Nazarene.

Leading the scoring effort for Lake Erie was junior Rokas Castillo with 12 points, most of which came at the free-throw line (7/8). The last time the Storm's leading scorer had fewer than that was December 2022, when Caleb Piks had 11 in a 57-55 win over Malone.

The Matchup

Starting in 2008-2009—when the teams met an unusual three times, with Gannon winning each—Lake Erie responded by taking three of the next four matchups, the latest of which was an 80-73 win in 2022-2023. With their victory tonight, Gannon moves to 5-3 in the all-time series.

Looking Ahead

Next up is the first conference matchup of the season, as the Walsh Cavaliers come to town on Thursday, December 4th at 7:30 p.m. The Cavaliers are 5-0 so far, beginning their season with two wins in Puerto Rico before returning to the States and dominating three non-conference opponents by a combined 116 points.

Walsh enters Thursday's game on 10 days of rest. They are led by sophomore Quintero Barnett, who is averaging 20 points per game. Three other starters average double figures as well, and Kaleb Schaffer off the bench also reaches the decade mark. Senior Zack Otto leads the team in both rebounds and assists.