HONOLULU, Hawaii - The Lake Erie College men's basketball team opened its 2026-27 season on Friday night at the Hoops Hawaii Classic by outlasting the Winona State University Warriors, 73-72, in overtime.
Jamyier Patton split a pair of free throws with five seconds remaining in overtime to put the Storm in front, and Lake Erie fended off a last-second attempt by the Warriors to escape with the victory.
A layup from Keishawn Morris with 14:18 remaining in the second half gave LEC a 42-41 lead. The Storm would never trail again in regulation, but WSU managed to remain within striking distance. A Caelum Ethridge layup with just under three minutes remaining extended the lead to 64-58, but the Storm would not score again until overtime.
After Joevonn McCottry tied the game at 64-64 with 49 seconds remaining, Lake Erie missed a pair of 3-pointers, giving the Warriors an opportunity to win it. However, Luke Haertle's jumper at the buzzer rimmed out, sending the game into overtime.
Lake Erie fell behind 70-66 just 90 seconds into the extra session, but the Storm defense held the Warriors scoreless over the final 2:24 to set up the comeback victory. A pair of clutch free throws from Louis Conner with 2:05 remaining cut the WSU lead to one, 72-71. Ryan Rodriguez then split a pair of free throws with 56 seconds left to even the score at 72-72, setting the stage for Patton's game-winning free throw.
The Storm stayed with the Warriors throughout the opening portion of the first half, as an Amari Williams jumper at the midway point of the period tied the game at 13-13. However, the Warriors created some separation with a 13-5 run, capped by Alessandro Tonelli's 3-pointer to make it 26-18 and force a Storm timeout.
Lake Erie responded well out of the timeout, trimming the deficit to three, 27-24, on an Aidan Filippini triple-hit with 3:21 remaining in the half. The Storm ultimately trailed just 32-28 at the break despite shooting 3-of-19 from beyond the arc in the opening 20 minutes.
Gio Moore led the Storm with 22 points and eight rebounds.
Lake Erie will return to action tomorrow against the winner of the Tampa-Chaminade matchup at 7:30 p.m. HST (1:30 a.m. ET Sunday).
