Box Score

Northwood NW 8-19,4-15 G-MAC

Lake Erie LEC 19-8,12-7 G-MAC

Northwood NW

8-19,4-15 G-MAC

Final

Feb. 27, 2025

Lake Erie LEC

19-8,12-7 G-MAC

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	F
Northwood NW	47	38	85
Lake Erie LEC	36	46	82

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | 2/27/2025 11:19:00 PM

Northwood Builds Early Cushion, Storm’s Rally Falls Just Short, 85-82

Next Game:

Findlay

3/1/2025 | 3 PM

Next Game

Full Schedule

Mar. 01 (Sat) / 3 PM

Findlay

History

Recap
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PAINESVILLE, Ohio -- The Lake Erie men's basketball team hosted the Northwood Timberwolves on Thursday, narrowly falling short of an epic 17-point comeback in an 85-82 loss. The Storm dropped their second game in a row, moving to 19-8 overall and, more importantly, 12-7 in conference play. Now locked in a three-way tie for third place in the G-MAC standings—where they hold the tiebreaker—Lake Erie can secure a home playoff game with a win in their final regular-season matchup against Findlay on Saturday.

Game Recap

At the second media timeout with 11:55 left in the first half, the scoreboard was brutal: Lake Erie 8, Northwood 25. Yes, the third-best team in the conference—12-1 at home—was down by 17 to a 3-15 Timberwolves squad just eight minutes into the game. It was a nightmare on both ends. The Storm shot a rough 4-of-15 with three turnovers, while Northwood came out scorching hot, hitting 9-of-10 from the field, including 5-of-6 from three.

But as bad as it looked, Lake Erie wasn't playing terrible basketball. They generated good looks that simply wouldn't fall, while Northwood was drilling tough shots at an unsustainable clip. The saving grace? The law of averages. Eventually, shots would start dropping for Lake Erie, and Northwood would cool off.

That shift began before halftime. The Storm offense woke up, putting up a respectable 36 first-half points—but the Timberwolves barely flinched, still leading 47-36 at the break.

Down 11 at halftime to the last-place team in the conference, Lake Erie needed a big second half—and that's exactly what they delivered. Slowly but surely, thanks to improved shot-making and key defensive adjustments, the Storm chipped away at the deficit. With 14 minutes left, they trailed just 60-55. At the 5:55 mark, they took their first lead of the night, 69-68.

From there, though, Northwood delivered in crunch time, scoring on nine of their final 12 possessions—a pace the Storm just couldn't quite match, despite their relentless effort.

With two seconds left and down three, Caleb Piks launched a perfect deep pass to his tight end Todd Simons, who nearly sent the game to overtime, igniting the 250 fans in attendance. But it wasn't meant to be. The Storm fell just short, suffering their second consecutive loss—only the second time that's happened all season.

Analysis

Thursday's loss exposed one of the Storm's biggest concerns: a lack of size to match up defensively against taller, physical opponents. Northwood exploited this mismatch with two 6'7" graduate seniors who not only scored efficiently but also created opportunities for teammates when Lake Erie's weak-side help arrived. The Storm, known for their disruptive guard play and aggressive defense in passing lanes, struggled to contain Northwood's interior presence. One particular lineup stood out in the second half: 5'11" Alan Swenson, 6'3" C.J. Hornbeak, 6'3" Joshua Dames, and 6'4" Aidan Filippini all shared the floor, as Lake Erie opted for small-ball against a much longer opponent. While they have size on the roster—6'6" Cameron Johnson, 6'6" Gio Moore, and 6'7" Josh Irwin—the Storm often lean on 6'5" Caleb Piks and 6'4" Todd Simons for their combination of strength, lateral quickness, and length.

Despite the loss, Lake Erie was dominant on the offensive glass, turning 12 offensive rebounds into a staggering 25 second-chance points—vastly outpacing Northwood's five. That, along with forcing 15 turnovers, allowed the Storm to take 23 more field goal attempts than the Timberwolves (69 to 46).

Free throws were another key storyline. The last time these teams met, Lake Erie sent Northwood to the line a whopping 43 times, the most in the Timberwolves' program history, surpassing previous highs of 37 against Grand Valley State (2017) and Davenport (2021). This time? 34 attempts. While the Storm already lead the conference in opponent free throws allowed (by 34), this was high even for their standards. The last time they sent a non-Northwood opponent to the line this often was 45 games ago against Nova Southeastern. The strategy made sense—Northwood shoots just under 70% from the stripe, ranking third-worst in the conference—but it still proved costly.

Wild stat of the night: Lake Erie's bench not only outscored Northwood's second unit 44-10, but there has been a remarkable shift in scoring distribution over the season. In the first eight conference games, the Storm's starters averaged 55.1 points per game, while the bench contributed just 26.9—only 33.2% of the team's total scoring. Over the last seven conference matchups? The bench has actually outscored the starters, 264-263, leading the team in five of those seven games after failing to do so in any of the first eight. No other team in the conference gets this level of production from its reserves.

The Matchup

After splitting the season series 1-1, Lake Erie is now 2-4 all-time against the Timberwolves in the two program's histories.

Looking Ahead

Only one regular season game left! Findlay (23-4, #12 nationally) comes to town on Saturday, March 1st to square off at 3 p.m. for the first rendition of the Storm vs Oilers this season. Findlay has had an absolutely dominant season, winning games by an average of nearly 14 points, yet come off a 76-69 loss at the hands of Ashland on Thursday.

Findlay's Strengths:

Scoring – Leads the conference in points per game (84.9)
Three-Point Shooting – Tied for most attempts with Lake Erie (27+ per game), making 37.1 percent (second-best in the conference)
Rebounding – Second-most total rebounds, averaging 11.6 offensive boards per game
Turnovers – Fourth-fewest turnovers per game, second-most turnovers forced, second-best turnover margin (+5.74)
Assist/Turnover Ratio – 1.65 (second-best in the G-MAC)
Health – Have remained relatively injury-free, with all key players available