Men's college basketball: Second-half surge lifts Findlay over Lake Erie

University of Findlay’s Chazz George, left, blocks the shot attempt by Lake Erie College's Jacob Plantz (4) during Tuesday's Great Midwest Athletic Conference tournament opener at Niekamp Arena. (Photo by Matthias Leguire) By ANDY WOLF STAFF WRITER The University of Findlay men’s basketball team is turning into quite the second-half team. The Oilers found themselves down by 12 points at halftime yet came back and dominated the final five minutes to survive against Lake Erie College 85-69 in Tuesday’s Great Midwest Athletic Conference tournament opener at Niekamp Arena. “It speaks to the team we have this year,” sophomore guard Ethan Linder said. “We’ve been down before. Second half has always been our strong half — not that we mean to. “It brings us together. We’ve got a team that always sticks together and fights things out.” Linder had all of his team-high 18 points in the second half. Senior forward Aaron Overhiser added 16 points and a career-high 17 rebounds — the latter a season high for any UF player. “Aaron was a man tonight,” UF coach Charlie Ernst said. Because No. 1 seed Hillsdale was upset by No. 8 Kentucky Wesleyan on Tuesday (80-72), Findlay will host the rest of the GMAC tournament. The Oilers will play No. 3 seed and defending tourney champs Walsh (23-6) at 6 p.m. Friday in Niekamp Arena in a rematch of last year’s GMAC championship game. The Hillsdale loss was announced to Niekamp Arena with about four minutes to go in UF’s game. Findlay took care of business by outscoring Lake Erie 14-0 in the last five minutes. In their last five home games, the Oilers have trailed at halftime in four and were tied in the other. They went 4-1 in those games with a most recent loss to Hillsdale on Saturday (59-54). Lake Erie (14-15) had six players drain eight total 3-pointers in building its 44-32 halftime edge. “Chazz George said ‘Man, we’ve been here before. It’s nothing new to us,'” Linder said of his teammate. “We’ve just got to come and play our game like we talked about from the start.” The tide turned quickly in the second half as the Storm’s and the GMAC’s leading scorer Gabe Kynard picked up his fourth foul just 1:12 in. By the time he returned 4:10 later, the Oilers had it down to 51-49 as Linder split two free throws. Two minutes later, Overhiser scored on the right block to complete the comeback and tie the game at 53-53. Linder soon splashed in a 3-pointer off a Tommy Schmock steal and assist to bring the crowd to its feet and prompt a timeout by Lake Erie coach Kyle Conley. “We talked about it in the locker room; we’ve got to get the crowd into it,” Linder said. “We went on that run, our crowd got into it and it really drives the home team.” Findlay kept a small cushion for the next few minutes. Jacob Plantz’s 3-pointer put Lake Erie on top at 65-64 with less than seven minutes to play, but Schmock quickly answered with a 3-ball of his own and Andrew Emrick (11 points) added an inside score. Then, Linder went into attack mode. With UF leading 71-69 at the five-minute mark, he scored nine of the next 11 points for his team. First, he went baseline, split two free throws, drove by a tired Lake Erie defense for two more scores and sank two more free throws with 2:04 to go. He even dished off to Overhiser for an emphatic dunk with 49 seconds left. Schmock’s 3-ball in the final seconds capped the scoring. “Toward the end of this game, my teammates trust me,” Linder said. “We can put the ball in the hands of our guards’ hands. It just happened to be me, I guess.” Kynard, who often takes over games late for Lake Erie, tallied only 28 minutes because of foul trouble and had just nine points. He also had three assists to five turnovers. Schmock, tasked with guarding Kynard most of the night, had 15 points, five assists and five steals. “(Tommy) always draws the assignment of the other team’s best perimeter player,” Ernst said. “What made it tough is Tommy is so disruptive guarding the other team’s point guard.” Plantz made four 3-pointers en route to a game-high 20 points for the Storm. Kaleb Vaughn had 11 points, seven rebounds, two steals and three blocks. LAKE ERIE (14-15) Peterson 3-5 1-3 8, Vaughn 4-6 2-4 11, Plantz 7-11 2-3 20, Kynard 2-6 4-4 9, Riggs 3-11 2-4 9, James 2-4 0-0 6, Loomis 1-2 1-2 3, Jones 0-4 0-0 0, Burdyshaw 1-4 0-0 3. TOTALS: 23-53 12-20 — 69. FINDLAY (21-7) Masterlasco 3-5 3-5 10, Bruns 3-6 0-1 6, Overhiser 7-12 2-5 16, Schmock 6-13 0-0 15, Linder 6-15 4-6 18, Gray 1-2 0-0 2, George 2-3 1-3 6, Emrick 4-6 3-5 11, Edmonds 0-1 1-2 1, Stover 0-0 0-0 0, Wildermuth 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 32-63 14-27 — 85. 3-Point GOALS: Lake Erie 11-25 (Peterson 1-2, Vaughn 1-1, Plantz 4-7, Kynard 1-2, Riggs 1-6, James 2-3, Jones 0-1, Burdyshaw 1-3); Findlay 7-16 (Masterlasco 1-2, Bruns 0-2, Overhiser 0-1, Schmock 3-6, Linder 2-2, Gray 0-1, George 1-1, Edmonds 0-1). rebounds: Lake Erie 31 (Vaughn 7); Findlay 43 (Overhiser 17). ASSISTS: Lake Erie 20 (Riggs 7); Findlay 17 (Schmock 5). STEALS: Lake Erie 5 (Vaughn & Riggs 2); Findlay 11 (Schmock 5). BLOCKS: Lake Erie 7 (Vaughn 3); Findlay 2 (Overhiser & George 1). TURNOVERS: Lake Erie 14; Findlay 11. TOTAL FOULS: Lake Erie 21; Findlay 20. FOULED OUT: Lake Erie (Vaughn); Findlay (none). HALFTIME: Lake Erie, 44-32. Wolf, 419-427-8496 Send an E-mail to andywolf