WILBERFORCE — The Central State Marauders built a 17-point halftime lead and held on for a 73-68 victory over the Lake Erie Storm, Nov. 18, in the Beacom/Lewis Gymnasium.
CSU picked up its first win of the season and is now 1-3 entering the Thanksgiving break. Lake Erie dropped to 2-2 overall.
“Led by Davone, our bench gave us the edge in tonight’s win,” said CSU Head Coach Joseph Price. “I also thought Chris Cook and Terrence Gholson gave us some good minutes tonight on both ends of the floor. I am proud of the way our reserves stepped up and delivered at key moments in the game.”
Both offenses struggled to score in the opening minutes before Lake Erie built a lead of 14-8 after a Ryan Middendorf three-pointer at the 10:58 mark. Davone Daniels gave the Marauder offense a jump start off the bench with seven quick points, as CSU outscored LEC, 28-6, to take a 36-21 lead at intermission.
Lake Erie cut the deficit down to six midway through the second stanza, but CSU answered right back as Daniels hit back-to-back shots from beyond the arc to up the lead to 14 with 5:39 to play. Lake Erie refused to go away, as the Storm hit their next four shots from the field.
A Harrison Riggs three ball brought Lake Erie with three points with 2:08 left to play. Baskets from Oliver Martin and Chris Scott put CSU back up by seven with 47 seconds left. The Storm pulled back within three with a free throw and three-pointer from Riggs. With 10 seconds to go, the Storm sent Daniels to the line. The senior guard from Indianapolis, Ind. calmly knocked down both free throws for his 20th and 21st point of the night, clinching the game for his team.
Daniels led a CSU bench that outscored the Lake Erie reserves, 43-28.
On his way to a game-high 21 points, Daniels converted 7-of-11 shots and was a perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line.
Oliver scored 15 points. Scott recorded his second double-double of the season with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Lake Erie was paced by Ryan Middendorf’s 14 points.
“We had some players finally step up in big moments tonight and we need them to maintain a high level of consistency as we go into conference play,” said Price. “Lake Erie is a very good team. We had our opportunities to take full control of the game, but they kept finding ways to get back into the game and they really made our guys work for tonight’s win.”
CSU played the game without last year’s top scorer in Dwight Richards Jr. and top rebounder Jeremy Brown. Both players are expected back after the holiday break. Daniels scored a season-high 21 points on Saturday. Daniels transferred to CSU for his senior season. He previously played at St. Joseph’s College (Ind.).
CSU will begin SIAC play at 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 25 when they host Albany State.
