NORTH CANTON, Ohio -- The Lake Erie men's basketball team defeated Ashland University in the G-MAC Semifinals on Friday evening, earning an epic 89-88 victory. The Eagles narrowly led the entire first half, taking a 46-41 lead into halftime, and later extended their advantage to 14 points. It appeared the Storm were done for, as they trailed by double-digits with ~9 minutes remaining, but late-game heroics, namely by All-Conference members Amari Williams and Kai Bloom, helped fuel one of the most historic comebacks in program history.
With the win, Lake Erie earns an extended stay in North Canton, where they will battle Walsh University tomorrow, March 7th, in a 3 pm showdown for the G-MAC Championship on the Cavaliers' home floor. With a victory, the Storm would secure the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament, marking the program's first appearance since the legendary 25-3 team in 2006-07. Selection Sunday at 11pm on March 8th will determine seeding, opponent, and the host site for the Midwest Regional.
Game Recap
The first eight minutes of play were largely back-and-forth, as the Eagles held a 16-14 lead. However, an 8-0 run saw Ashland jump ahead by double-digits. Lake Erie was able to cap it at a 10-point deficit and, from there, slowly chipped away. Two Aidan Filippini free throws with 10 seconds remaining before the break cut the deficit to just two. The Eagles, however, swung halftime momentum back in their favor, as their leading three-point shooter this season, Cooper Davis, hit a huge three right before the buzzer to enter halftime up 46-41.
The Eagles scored 14 points on their first seven possessions out of halftime, exploding to a 60-46 lead before Lake Erie knew what hit them. However, recently announced G-MAC All-Conference players Amari Williams and Kai Bloom had something to say about that, helping spark an 8-0 run. While Ashland's offense got back on track, junior Caelum Ethridge scored six straight Storm points to keep Lake Erie afloat. Despite the resilience, LEC still trailed by 11 with only 9:05 remaining, as it looked like Ashland was on track to meet Walsh in the championship.
However, the All-Conference tandem once again, as they have all season, showed up in the biggest moments. The duo combined for 20 of the Storm's final 24 points from that moment on, helping Lake Erie take its first lead since 9-6 in the opening minutes, going up 83-81 with 3:14 remaining.
With 44 seconds remaining, Gio Moore grabbed a huge offensive rebound and was fouled on his putback, where he went 1/2 from the stripe to put Lake Erie up 88-86. Back-to-back G-MAC Player of the Year Maceo Williams went down and scored his 29th point of the game, knotting the teams at 88-apiece heading into an Ashland timeout. As play resumed, Amari Williams took time off the clock before getting fouled on a driving attempt with five seconds remaining. Excellent at nearly everything besides the charity stripe (62.8%), Amari missed the first free throw for dramatic effect before sinking the second to put the Storm up by one. Ashland raced down for a jumper that was no good, as was Maceo Williams' putback attempt, and Lake Erie survived by the skin of its teeth to advance to tomorrow's championship.
Analysis
After losing 14-straight games to the Eagles from 2015-16 to 2023-24, Lake Erie just went 3-0 against Ashland this season. In a dynamic era of college hoops, with the transfer portal as prominent as ever, Coach Conley has found the formula through culture and identity to succeed.
In the prior two matchups this season between these squads, Lake Erie was the team getting out to great starts before surrendering late comebacks, ultimately still finding a way to secure the win. In the first matchup, Lake Erie put up 51 points in the first half thanks to 10 three-pointers en route to 100 points overall, yet allowed the Eagles to finish the game on a 13-0 run to make the final score appear much closer than the game really was. In the second, much more dramatic matchup in Ashland, the Storm entered halftime up by 15 yet again, but found themselves in a one-score game with 15 seconds remaining. Ultimately able to close it out, Lake Erie showed a level of poise that Ashland wasn't able to replicate tonight.
Despite having no answer for Maceo Williams, as the 6'7 redshirt senior finished with 29 points on 11/17 shooting with 13 free throw attempts, Lake Erie was able to sneak out the win. Every G-MAC school can breathe a sigh of fresh air at the graduation of this dominant athlete.
There were 63 fouls tonight. Lake Erie shot 43 free throws, their most in over 16 years, when they went 36/50 against Urbana University back on February 10th, 2010. Getting to the line for 39 free throws is much more common for Ashland, as the presence of a dominant interior force like Maceo tends to send them to the line quite often, but it marks the most personal fouls they've committed since a quadruple overtime game back in 2014 versus Grand Valley State. Ashland has shot 60 more free throws than any other G-MAC school this season, and their total of 710 marks the most in the conference since the 2016-17 Davis & Elkins squad. Ashland finished tonight with six players sitting on four fouls and one player who fouled out. Lake Erie experienced similar foul trouble, as four players finished with four fouls and three others sitting on three.
The team shooting splits would imply that Lake Erie got blown out tonight. Ashland shot 51.8% from the field and 45.5% from deep compared to Lake Erie's 46.8% field goal percentage and 11.1% on threes. The Storm had easily their worst three-point performance of the season, going just 2/18, their fewest makes and lowest percentage. However, five more offensive rebounds and four fewer turnovers were the recipe for the win tonight.
With three-pointers not falling, the Storm pivoted to attack the foul-heavy Eagles, attempting just seven threes in the second half, their second-fewest in any half all season. This downhill mentality further exacerbated the situation for Ashland. The Storm finished with 50 points in the paint, their most in a regulation conference game this season. That is 100% by design, as in theory, fouling out a player of the caliber of Maceo completely flips the game around.
At halftime, Kai Bloom was sitting at seven points, two rebounds, three assists, and a steal. Already looking like a great, well-rounded game. He would go on to finish with 22 points, six rebounds, six assists, and five steals on 9/15 shooting. The biggest game of his collegiate career, and he delivered big time.
The same can be said for Amari Williams. The All-Conference First Teamer scored 13 points with five boards in the second half, as he in particular forced the issue on the foul-troubled Eagles, getting to the free throw line for 11 attempts.
Caelum Ethridge also came up huge. The junior scored 13 points in his three prior games combined, but in the second half against Ashland put up 12 points and grabbed six rebounds on 5/7 shooting. Big-time player made some big-time plays.
Looking Ahead
The Storm are headed to their first G-MAC Championship game ever, as they take on the No. 1-seeded Walsh on Saturday, March 7th, for a 3 pm matchup. The Cavaliers are ranked #14 nationally and are coming off a quarterfinal win against Hillsdale, 76-49, and a semifinal victory over Findlay, 87-77. Earlier this season, Lake Erie and Walsh split 1-1, with each side interestingly winning on the road.
In the first matchup between these squads back in early December, the Storm trailed for the majority of the game and found themselves down by nine points with 8:26 remaining. However, Lake Erie held the Cavaliers to just five points over the following eight minutes, mounting a comeback strong enough to send the game into OT. In overtime, Walsh was still in the double bonus and the Storm was stifled on offense, forced to settle for tough shots, and went 0/6 from deep, as their push fell just short against an at-the-time undefeated Cavaliers team that would soon become nationally ranked.
When Lake Erie traveled to North Canton in February, however, they had cleaned up much on both sides, especially their reliance on threes when they aren't falling. Walsh jumped out to an early nine-point lead, but the potent Storm offense is capable of striking in bunches at any given time and carried a lead by halftime. Going down by 14 in the second half, Walsh clawed back and kept it close, but the Storm coughed up just two turnovers in the final 10 minutes and sank 8/10 free throws down the stretch, two big factors that helped solidify a win over the #15 team at the time. A main factor in the win was 17 offensive rebounds, tying the most Walsh has surrendered in the past six seasons. The bench also produced 54 points for the Storm, including 20 from Gavin Welch on 4/7 shooting from deep.
While Lake Erie is enjoying a 12-game winning streak, Walsh is also over a month removed from their last loss, which came at the hands of the Storm. Sitting at 26-3, it's rare that the Cavaliers enter the loss column.
Similar to Ashland, Lake Erie lost eight-straight games to the Cavaliers from 2020-2024, but last year took their only matchup in an 80-68 win. This season, they split 1-1. The tides are clearly turning from an entire conference outlook for LEC.
Walsh is sitting at a point margin of 16.2, as their offense and defense both rank 3rd in the conference. If it holds, this will go down as the most dominant season from a G-MAC team since the 2016-17 Kentucky Wesleyan Wildcats, who finished 28-3 with a 20.5 point margin.
The Cavaliers are dominant on the boards, boasting a +8.2 margin, shoot exactly 50% from the field, and are 3rd in three-point percentage at 36.1%.
Two Cavaliers were honored with First Team All-Conference on Saturday: sophomore guard Quintero Barnett (7th in points, 7th in fg%, 14th in assists, 2nd in steals) and freshman forward Brayden Gross (14th in points, 4th in rebounding, 4th in fg%, 6th in free throw attempts). Kobe Mitchell, a senior guard, was honored with Second Team All-Conference. Mitchell does a bit of everything for the Cavs and complements the backcourt with Quintero incredibly well. In Walsh's early win over LEC, he hit four of the team's six three-pointers.
Interestingly, it was another starter, Matthew Biddell, who averaged 17.5 points against the Storm in their two encounters this season, tying his season-high of 18 in the overtime Cavs win.
When Lake Erie won in February, they did so despite having no answer for Brayden Gross, who finished 8/9 from the field for 23 points in his season high.
