Oilers Outscore Lake Erie by 28 in Second Half to Win G-MAC Quarterfinal
Findlay, Ohio – It was a tale of two halves on Tuesday, March 3 in Croy Gymnasium where the University of Findlay men's basketball team outscored Lake Erie College by 28 to secure an 85-69 victory to advance in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) Championship Tournament. With the win the Oilers, regular season co-champions of the league, improve to 21-7 on the year while the Storm end their season with a 14-15 mark.
Coming to Croy as the seventh seed, the Storm of Lake Erie could not have asked for a better start. Lead 11-10, the Storm then embarked on a 15-4 run over a five-minute stretch midway through the first half to take a 26-14 lead. That lead eventually ballooned to 16 points for Lake Erie, who later took a 12-point lead into the break.
In that first half, Lake Erie hit 54 percent of their shots from the field including hitting eight triples while Findlay made just 38 percent and just 3-of-10 from deep.
In what felt like the blink of an eye, Findlay had opened the second half with a 28-9 run to take a seven-point lead just nine minutes into the second half of play.
Lake Erie took the lead back at 65-64 on a three-point jumper, Findlay answered with a 21-4 run to close the game, earning a convincing victory in the first round of the tournament.
In the game, Findlay hit 32-of-64 (51 percent) including a scorching 66 percent in the second half. That shooting did not translate to the free throw line where the Oilers overcame shooting just 14-of-27 for 51.9 percent, their lowest perentage in a game this season where they recorded at least 20 free throw attempts.
The Oilers held a big advantage on the glass, grabbing 43 rebounds while Lake Erie had just 31. 15 of Findlay's rebounds were offensive which led to 17 second chance points.
Senior Aaron Overhiser played one of the best games of his career, not wanting his career to end on Tuesday night. The forward scored 16 points and grabbed a career-high 17 rebounds.
Sophomore Ethan Linder led the Oilers with 18 points while junior Tommy Schmock scored 15 including a team-high three triples. Schmock led the team with five assists and five steals.
Senior Andrew Emrick put together his fourth double-digit scoring effort while at Findlay, scoring 11 points on 4-of-6 from the floor. Junior Anthony Masterlasco rounded out the Oilers' double-digit scorers with ten points including five rebounds, two assists, and a steal.
By virtue of a loss by top-seed and fellow co-champion Hillsdale in the first round, the Oilers will play host to the remainder of the G-MAC Championship Tournament for the third consecutive season. Findlay will take on third-seeded Walsh on Friday, March 6 in Croy at 6:00 pm to open up the G-MAC Semifinals. Malone, who defeated Cedarville on Wednesday, will take on Kentucky Wesleyan, who took down Hillsdale, in the other semifinal matchup.