Box Score COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio Dominican's men's basketball team came back to defeat Lake Erie in Great Midwest Athletic Conference action by a final score of 75-65 Thursday evening in Alumni Hall.
Senior Hasan Varence (Queens, New York) led the way for the Panthers scoring 17 points and grabbing 12 rebounds on his way to his 11th double-double of the season. Sophomore Arius Jones (Lansing, Mich.) was 11-for-13 at the free throw line on his way to a career-high 15 points while dishing out six assists and grabbing five rebounds.
Freshman Sean Marks (Delaware, Ohio) and senior Michael Simon (Hilliard, Ohio) scored all the Panther bench points with Marks scoring 13 while Simon had 10 in a season-high 26 minutes.
With Lake Erie leading 48-47 with 10:42 remaining, a Varence jumper gave the Panthers their first lead of the contest since they led 5-3 at the beginning of the contest. With the Panthers leading 51-50 with 6:59 remaining, a 12-2 run led by seven points from Jones gave ODU its largest lead of the game at 63-52 with 2:06 remaining.
With their last field goal coming at the 1:40 mark on a Michael Scott (Hebron, Ky.) jump shot to make the score 65-55, the Panthers would finish the contest 10-for-12 with Jones going 4-for-6, Marks going 4-for-4 and Scott 2-for-2 at the charity stripe to capture the win.
In the first half, with ODU leading 5-3, a quick 7-0 run for the Storm gave them a 10-5 lead, which they would not give up until the 10:42 mark of the second half. With the score tied at 23 apiece after a Varence triple, a Lake Erie 15-7 run opened an eight-point lead, their largest of the game at 38-30 with 1:13 remaining in the first half. A Sam Hickey (Toledo, Ohio) old-fashioned three point play with send the teams into the locker room with ODU trailing 38-33.
The Panthers finished the contest shooting 42.3% from the floor (22-for-52) and 47.4% (9-for-19) from behind the arc. ODU was an astounding 22-for-26 (84.6%) from the charity stripe as well in the win.
The Lake Erie offense did not make a three in the second half, finishing 5-for-32 (15.6%) from behind the arc and shooting 36.4% (24-for-66) from the floor throughout the contest.
LEC was led by Gave Kynard scoring 25 points with Jacob Plantz also scoring in double-figures with 13.
The Panthers now advance to 10-12 overall and 7-6 in the conference while Lake Erie drops to 13-10 overall and is also 7-6 in the conference.
ODU will play its final nonconference contest of the season when they host Wright St.-Lake Saturday, February 8 inside Alumni Hall with tip set for 1 p.m.
