Men's Basketball Wins Overtime Thriller Over Lake Erie 100-96

OVERVIEW – LAKE ERIE

SCORE: Northwood Timberwolves 100, Lake Erie Storm 96 (OT)

RECORDS: Northwood (10-6, 5-4 G-MAC), Lake Erie (10-6, 4-4 G-MAC)

LOCATION: Riepma Arena – Midland, Mich.

RECAP: Northwood men's basketball earns a dramatic 100-96 overtime win over Lake Erie Saturday afternoon (January 17).

GAME STORY

• Lake Erie was the better team early, opening up a 15-7 at the 13:53 mark.
• The Timberwolves responded with eight of the next 10 points to make the score 17-15.
• Six straight points for Lake Erie later in the half took a two-point lead for the Storm and extended it to 35-27 with 4:55 left.
• Northwood came right back with a big run to finish the half – the Timberwolves put up 14 straight points to go up 41-35.
• LEC scored the final two points of the half to make the NU lead 41-37 at the break.
• The game was tight throughout the second half – the largest lead for either side was six points when the Storm was on top 59-53 with 15 minutes remaining.
• That is when Northwood scored eight of the next 10 points to level the score at 61-61.
• Will Young II connected on a pair of free throws with 11 second remaining to put the Timberwolves on top 90-88, only to see the Storm make a pair of free throws with six seconds remaining to force overtime.
• The final 1:58 of the game featured clutch free throw shooting for both teams. Northwood went 5-6, while Lake Erie went 4-4.
• NU scored on the first shot of overtime and held the lead the rest of the game.
• The Timberwolves led by as many as five in OT before taking the game by four.

GAME STATS

• FG PERCENTAGE: Lake Erie .402 (33-82), Northwood .485 (33-68)
• 3-PT PERCENTAGE: Lake Erie .442 (19-43), Northwood .370 (10-27)
• FREE THROW PERCENTAGE: Lake Erie .668 (11-16), Northwood .706 (24-34)
• REBOUNDS: Lake Erie 41 (13 offensive), Northwood 49 (12 offensive)
• ASSISTS/TURNOVERS: Lake Erie 22/16, Northwood 17/18

TOP NU PERFORMERS

• Young: 30 points (matches career-high), six rebounds
• Jamison Eklund: 19 points
• Brayden Szamrej: 13 points, five assists, four steals
• John Sweeney: Seven points, 14 rebounds
• John Simpson: Nine points, six rebounds
• Parker Day: Eight points, seven rebounds
• Jamonte Smith: Eight points

NORTHWOOD NOTES

• The game featured 16 lead changes and 10 ties.
• Northwood, which entered the game shooting over 80 percent from the foul line, made 12 of their final 13 free throws (92.3 percent) over the final 1:46 of regulation and overtime. NU was 12 for 21 prior to that stretch (57.1 percent).
• Northwood's last seven games have all been decided by seven points or less. NU has gone 5-2 in those games, with Northwood outscoring its opponent by a total of 10 points (566-556).
• This is the second time since December 17 that Young has scored his career-high with 30 points.

UP NEXT

• The Timberwolves travel to Cedarville Thursday (January 22). Game time is set for 7:30 p.m.