CRESTVIEW HILLS, Kentucky --The Lake Erie men's basketball team competed in the G-MAC quarterfinals on Tuesday against the 5th-seeded Thomas More Saints, falling 99-92. After trailing by 17 at halftime, the Storm made a late push but ultimately fell short, finishing their season at 19-10. Despite the tough ending—losing their final three regular-season games, narrowly missing out on hosting a playoff game, and bowing out in the conference quarterfinals—Lake Erie should be proud of their 2025 campaign. The program made a massive leap from an eight-win season last year to 19 victories, their most since 2007.
 
Game Recap

The game was doomed from the start, as four minutes in the score read 14-0 Saints. Although the Storm were able to slice their deficit to just six, Thomas More held a double-digit lead for nearly the entire first half, leading by as much as 21, as they entered the break up 50-33. Shooting 21/32 from the field, the Saint's were riding hot, and Storm defense would need major adjustments if they wanted to comeback. The game was unfolding eerily similar to their first matchup of the season, where Lake Erie trailed 53-33 at halftime, with Thomas More shooting 19/28 (67.9%). In that game, Lake Erie dominated the second half but still fell 79-76. 

After nearly four minutes passed in the second half, not much progress had been made, as the Saints actually upped their lead to 62-42. However for the next four minutes it would be all Lake Erie. In this stretch, the Storm defense - who had been getting cooked all game - forced six consecutive turnovers, allowing their offense to run the fastbreak and find their easist looks of the night as they went on a 15-0 run, cutting the game to just a five-point margin. After back-and-forth play, the deficit was cut to just two, as with seven minutes left the score read: Thomas More 70, Lake Erie 68. Sadly an 8-0 Saint's run pushed their lead back to double-digits, and in the ensuing minutes it'd go up to 16, yet Lake Erie hung around, trailing by seven with 53 seconds remaining. Although Thomas More missed three free throws in the final minute, the Storm fell just short despite an incredible effort, capping off an incredible bounce-back season for the program under Coach Conley. 

Analysis

The Storm allowed 13 offensive rebounds, their most since the season opener against Lake Superior State. Grabbing boards as a whole, Lake Erie was dominated 40-22, their worst margin in a game since since -19 in the 2021 season against Hillsdale. It was just the sixth time all year where their opponent grabbed more offensive rebounds than them, as well as pouring in more second-chance points. 

After exiting a relatively easy non-conference play shooting just 34.8% on a whopping 32.0 three-pointers a night, distance shooting should be been extremely concerning as they entered conference-play where the defensive was bound to get much tougher. And that's exactly what happened - the Storm still shot a ton of threes (517, leading the conference), yet shot just 28.8% on them, the only G-MAC team under 32%. Tonight their downtown shooting let them down again, going just 7/25 (28%). As the Storm graduate three of their four leading three-point shooters (Joshua Dames, Caleb Piks, and Derrick Anderson), it will be interesting to see who steps up in this area moving forward for Lake Erie. 

Last season, Lake Erie finished with a historically bad free-throw margin (587 free throws allowed, 415 attempted, -172 margin). This season they actually fouled more often (662, led the G-MAC), yet drew an incredible 153 additional free throws of their own, cutting their margin down to -93, which still was the worst margin in the conference but it makes sense when you watch them play. Lake Erie notoriously presses with unrelenting havoc, forcing 96 more turnovers than the next closest G-MAC school and the most total turnovers in a season sense (528) Kentucky Wesleyan back in 2017. The 18.2 they forced/night is the most since Salem International in 2015. In today's game against Thomas More, the Saint's took 10 more free throws than the Storm, and without those added points who knows how the game ends up. 

Lake Erie shortened their rotational exponentially. Before a double-OT thriller in their previous game against Findlay, only three times this season did a Storm player reach 30 minutes in a game (Cameron Johnson twice, Jake Leibacher once). Tonight? Caleb Piks, Derrick Anderson, and Cameron Johnson all reached this mark, as only 56 minutes were dished towards the reserves. That being said, Todd Simons and Joshua Dames were incredibly pivotal off the bench, pouring in 11 and 8 points respectively, going 6/12 collectively from the field. 

The Matchup

Lake Erie only squared off against the Saints once before this season, losing to them last year in another close 80-77 matchup. This season, Thomas more won two of their three appearances, so the Saints are 1-3 overall.