The Ashland Eagles men’s basketball team narrowly fell short of a comeback victory against the Lake Erie Storm on Jan. 22, falling 85-90. Two weeks prior, these two teams faced off in Painesville, Ohio where Lake Erie won 100-86 on Jan 8.
In the contest, the Storm came out hot, making their first seven three-point attempts to take a 36-19 lead with seven minutes to play in the first half. The Eagles struggled with the fast-paced play the Storm run, along with their full team rotations keeping players stamina high.
As the half continued, so did the Storm as they grew their lead to 19, with three minutes to play in the first half. By the time the break came, the Eagles managed to get the lead cut down to 15 points, with work to do going into the locker room.
After a tiring first half, the Eagles knew they needed to come out the same way Lake Erie did to start the contest, hot. With the first two possessions, Eagles Senior forward Maceo Williams stepped up with two huge layups to give the team momentum. However, junior Guard Amari Williams wasted no time hitting a huge three-point shot for the Storm to stop the Eagle 4-0 run.
Over the next few minutes, each team would trade shots with Lake Erie extending their lead to 20 points after junior forward Gio Moore hit another three-pointer for the Storm. However, this is where the Eagle began their comeback.
With the help of some free throws, good defense, and redshirt-freshman guard Max Dawson’s shooting ability, the Eagles pulled the game back within 12 points. This was just over 2 minutes after the Storm led by 20.
Down the stretch it was a combination of three pointers by freshman guard Beau Sigfried, junior wing Cooper Davis and then a huge Dawson three pointer with 15 seconds left to make the score 88-85 Lake Erie. The Eagles then had to resort to the foul game, but with too little time left in the game it was too late. Back-to-back missed three pointers from Ashland ended their hopes of making the full comeback.
Ultimately, the Storm took control early and never lost their lead. Their fast-paced offense and full court defense once again proved to be too much for the Eagles to handle.
The Eagles were led by Williams, who finished the game with 21 points and 4 rebounds. In total they had 4 players reach double figures with Williams, Siegfried (13), Dawson (11), and Davis (10).
Ashland now turns to their next matchup on Jan. 24, when they travel to Hillsdale, Michigan to take on the G-MAC opponent, the Hillsdale Chargers. Tipoff for that matchup is set for 3:00 p.m. inside of the Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena.
