Storm rebound after painful loss

Basketball seasons are full of emotional swings. Sometimes, those swings come in compact time spans.

Senior guard Gabe Kynard and the Lake Erie College started the week on Nov. 26 with a 71-51 road loss to Daemen (N.Y.) College.

On Sept. 29, at the Osborne Center, that same LEC team hung a 74-48 loss on Alderson Broaddus (W.V.) University in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference opener for both teams.

LEC improved to 4-3 with the wire-to-wire win. AB dipped to 2-4 with the loss.

As bad as the Storm were in the loss to Daemen, they were good against the Rattlers.

LEC coach Kyle Conley said he could tell in practice on Nov. 28 his players had processed the lessons taken from the one-sided loss.

“We had probably the best practice we’ve had the night before a game,” Conley said. “We had to get our edge back.”

After getting off to a terrible start against Daemen, the Storm zoomed to a 16-2 lead after seven minutes of the first half in their bounce-back performance against the Rattlers.

“Tonight, we came to play,” Conley said.

Kynard scored eight of those 16 points. He finished with a game-high 14 points.

“Coming off a really bad game, you need your best player to come out and set the tone,” Conley said.

LEC junior guard Ennis Thomas scored 13 points. Junior forward Mitch Loomis added 12 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

The Rattlers got 12 points from Bryan Polanco as they were limited to 27.4 percent shooting from the field by LEC’s defense.