The Tiffin University men's basketball team fell behind by too much too early in their matchup with Lake Erie College, trailing by as much as 20 points before making a valiant comeback attempt.
The Dragons and Storm both started slow offensively, as the Dragons' defense held the Storm under 19 points in the first nine minutes of game action. The Dragons offense really scuffled early as they managed only 37% shooting from the field, including a 2 of 9 performance from beyond the arc. Even with their early offensive struggles, Tiffin only trailed 19-15 at the 11:04 mark in the 1st half. That quickly changed as Lake Erie used an 11-2 run in a little over three minutes to posses a 30-17 lead. It only got worse from their as Tiffin headed to the halftime buzzer down 42-26.
It was a 2nd half of offensive runs by both sides. Tiffin started first, pulling to within six points at 57-51 thanks to a 25-15 run over the course of 12 minutes of action. The Storm countered with a string of points of their own. Lake Erie pushed their lead back to 15 points with only two minutes left in the game. The Dragons were determined and scrapped to the final buzzer as Tiffin narrowed the gap to five points with only 78 seconds left to play. The Storm were able to hang on to their lead, making six of eight free throw attempts in the final minute of action.
Tiffin's 2nd half turnaround was due simply to better shooting as the Dragons improved their shooting percentage by almost eight percentage points in the 2nd half. Tiffin also got hot from the three point line, knocking down 7 of 16 attempts in the final half.
Individually Tiffin was led by Justin Miller with 12 points off the bench. Miller hit 4 of 7 three point attempts and shot 50% from the field. Shane Waldon had another nice game for Tiffin falling just short of a double-double with 10 points and nine boards. Alex Brown maybe had the best all around game for the Dragons, coming close to posting a triple-double. Brown scored 10 points, collected 8 rebounds, and dished out a team high seven assists.
The Dragons fall to 1-1 overall and will be back in action next Saturday against Salem International.