On Tuesday (Feb. 28) night at the Sherrill Hudson Court at Kates Gymnasium, Ashland University's men's basketball team earned its first Great Midwest Athletic Conference Tournament win, defeating Lake Erie, 81-69, in a 2023 league tourney quarterfinal.
 
The Eagles are 20-9, and have earned their first 20-win season since 2018-19. The Storm's season ends at 14-14.
 
A quick 9-3 Ashland lead was whittled down to 9-8 at the game's first media timeout. The Eagles scored the next eight points, then led 22-13 at the 12-minute mark of the first half.
 
A driving layup from freshman point guard Simon Wheeler gave AU its first double-digit lead at 28-18. Back-to-back 3-point field goals from fifth-year forward James Manns lifted the Eagles to a 35-20 lead, which forced a Storm timeout.
 
The halftime score was 46-31 in favor of the Eagles, and the factors were all over the floor – an AU shooting percentage of 60.0 and 3-point shooting percentage of 53.8, and the Storm being kept to 34.3 percent overall and 4-of-18 from beyond the arc.
 
Manns (16 points) and senior guard Brandon Haraway (12 points) accounted for the majority of the Eagles' points in the game's first 20 minutes.
 
A 7-0 Ashland spurt put the Eagles ahead 57-40, then AU matched its largest lead to date at 19 points, 62-43, with 12:10 left in the game. The Eagles led 64-44 before the Storm scored 12 consecutive points to cut their deficit to eight points. Lake Erie kept coming, and trailed by just four points at 66-62 when the last media stoppage of the game was called.
 
Haraway made both free throws to bring Ashland back to a six-point lead at 68-62, then senior guard Ethan Conley's triple made it a 71-64 advantage. Haraway's trey put the Eagles up by 10 at 74-64 heading into the last two minutes.
 
NOTABLES

• Haraway finished with a stat-sheet stuffing 23 points, eight assists, four rebounds and three steals. His 1,535 career points put him 10^th on Ashland's all-time scoring list.
• Junior center Victor Searls had a big second half to finish with 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting, to go with eight rebounds, while Manns ended with 16 points.
• Freshman point guard Simon Wheeler dished out eight assists, as Ashland had 20 helpers, leading to a 55.6-percent shooting night and 45.8 percent from the arc.
• Ashland is 31-3 all-time vs. the Storm.

 
QUOTABLES

• "They're not going to go away. They are a physical, tough team," said Ashland head coach John Ellenwood of Lake Erie.
• "Ethan hit a big shot. It was just a big shot, and a big moment for Ethan," Ellenwood said. "Down the stretch when they got it down, it was our veterans that kind of righted the ship."

 
UP NEXT
After defeating Lake Erie for a third time in 2022-23, Ashland will look to do the same on Friday (March 3) at 7:30 p.m. at Walsh against No. 23 Hillsdale (23-5) in a Great Midwest semifinal.