COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio Dominican men's basketball team battled point for point with the first place Lake Superior Lakers in a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match up Thursday evening, but fell to the Lakers 68-63 in Alumni Hall.

Sophomore Mark Minch (West Chester, Ohio) paced the Panthers (3-8; 1-6 GLIAC) with 20 points and four rebounds while sophomore Chad Nelson (Columbus, Ohio) added 14 points and five rebounds. Senior Brandon Carr (Chicago, Ill.) added 10 points and six rebounds off the bench.

Lake Superior (14-1; 6-1 GLIAC) was led by Derek Billing, who had 27 points, including 19 in the first half.

Neither team could make a run with the first half featured 10 lead changes and eight ties, with the both teams never trailing by more than five points.

The Panthers would take it largest lead of the half at five with 9:06 on the clock off of Nelson's basket to extend ODU's lead to 22-19. The Lakers would hit key shots toward the end of the period and headed into the locker room with a 35-33 lead.

ODU's number looked solid through the first half, shooting 43.3 percent from the field after connecting on 13-of-30 attempts.

After the intermission, LSSU extended its lead to 38-33 on back to back baskets by Cameron Metz. ODU used an 8-2 run to regain the lead 41-40 on a Minch basket with 16:09 to play. With the game tied 45-45, a basket by Minch and a 3-point jumper by Carr gave ODU its largest lead of the half, 50-45 with 12:41 to play.

The Lakers cut the lead back to three, 50-47 but a pair of sophomore Jordan Cowgill (Worthington, Ohio), gave the Panthers a five point lead with a pair of free throws at the under-10 media timeout. The Lakers cut the lead to one, 52-51 but a steal by senior Ledarius Stennis (Moss, Point, MS) and a made basket on the other end gave the Panthers the 54-51 lead with 9:25 left in the frame.

A pair of Billing free throws gave LSSU a 57-56 lead, and a three-point play by Tony Harris extended the Laker lead to 60-58.

Under a minute to play and down by three, Minch made a trip to the charity stripe and converted both to cut the lead to one, 64-63. Lake Superior hit a pair of free throws to take a three-point lead with 14.8 seconds left and took a 68-63 lead to seal the Panthers fate.

Ohio Dominican will welcome Northwood to Alumni Hall on Saturday, Jan. 11 for a 3 p.m. contest against the Timberwolves.

Contact: Sarah Twiggs
twiggss@ohiodominican.edu