The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Storm top Edinboro
Notice is served. The Lake Erie College men’s basketball team is for real.
Standout junior guard Gabe Kynard and the Storm took an big step forward Nov. 17 with a 74-50 victory over Edinboro at the Osborne Center.
It was impressive performance in every way by the Storm, who are 3-1 and playing like a team with a sense of collective self and purpose.
Edinboro slipped to 1-1. Kynard scored a gamehigh 26 points. The 6-foot, 185-pound product of Toledo St. John’s High School attacked the basket early and often as the Storm raced to a 6-0 lead in the opening two minutes and never trailed.
“This is so rewarding because we’ve put in all the work,” Kynard said.
Edinboro is a quality Division II program playing in the always-tough Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. The Fighting Scots have a terrific senior guard in South product Anthony Coleman and plenty of depth.
None of that mattered, as the Storm never let up on offense and kept the clamps on defensively.
“I’m extremely pleased
that we came out ready to play against an opponent of this caliber,” LEC coach Kyle Conley said.
Edinboro shot 29.4 percent from the floor. LEC made 41.1 percent of its attempted shots.
“They took it to us in every way. I was really impressed,” Edinboro coach Pat Cleary said.
LEC junior guard Erron James also was a force. He scored 15 points and added six rebounds, six assists and six steals. Junior forward Mitch Loomis had 10 points and five rebounds.
The Storm was ahead at halftime, 35-25, after Kynard cashed in a putback at the buzzer. LEC built leads as large as 28 points in the second half.
Coleman and sophomore guard Jaryn Simpson each had 11 points for the Fighting Scots.
“You have to give them credit for the way they played,” Coleman said.
The Storm won only four games when Kynard was a freshman and Conley was in his first season as coach. They upped the win total to 16 last season and got to the championship game of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference tournament.
“To be honest, I could see this coming two years ago when we were freshmen. But we were young and had so much to learn,” Kynard said. “Last season taught us what we needed to do to win at this level.”
Conley has seen the same progression.
“We believe we can be a good Division II team. We believe we can play,” Conley said.
LEC gets another test of its new-found mettle Nov. 20 when the Storm is in Erie, Pa., to face another rugged customer from the PSAC, Mercyhurst. Tipoff is 7 p.m.