LEC prepares for its first conference tournament

Lake Erie College coach Kyle Conley and his players were in Findlay on Feb. 28, enjoying the trappings of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference men’s basketball tournament.

G-MAC officials observed LEC’s practice at Croy Gymnasium, home of the tournament host and No 1 seed, University of Findlay.

After practice, the LEC traveling party had lunch at an area restaurant. Then came some down time at the team hotel. In the evening, there was a pre-tournament banquet.

All of the postseason hoopla may be routine business for many Division II programs. But it was a new experience for the Storm players.

In the eight seasons after LEC made the jump to Division II from Division III, all in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, the Storm never played their way into the GLIAC tournament’s eight-team field.

This season, in their GMAC debut, the Storm finished 15-13 overall and 1010 in the conference to earn the No. 7 seed. LEC faces No. 2 seed Walsh University (19-7, 14-6 G-MAC) at noon on March 1 in the first of four quarterfinal contests.

It’s a quantum leap forward for the LEC program after last season, when the Storm skidded to a 4-23 finish in Conley’s head-coaching debut.

“This is huge. The whole experience of being part of this tournament is so important for the program,” Conley said. “The guys have invested in each other and in the program’s growth.”

The Storm came to the tournament riding the wave of a three-game winning streak that included a 6760 home victory over Walsh on Feb. 22. LEC also won at Walsh, 83-79, on Jan. 13.

Sophomore guard Gabe Kynard (15.5 points, 4.7 rebounds) is the main cog in Conley’s nine-man rotation.

Walsh is anchored by the talented guard duo of sophomore Chandler Vaudrin (15.3 points, 9.4 rebounds, 7.4 assists) and redshirt freshman Bo Furcron (15.0 points).

“Our guys understand we’ll have to play great to beat this team a third time,” Conley said.