PAINESVILLE, Ohio - The Lake Erie College Storm were able to outpace the Malone University men's basketball team on Saturday by a score of 87-65. The loss snaps the Pioneers' six-game win streak and Malone now sits at 7-2 overall and 3-1 inside the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC). The Storm are 6-4 with a 1-2 mark in league play.
 
A usual strength for the Pioneers is rebounding, however Lake Erie dominated that stat category 52-27. That led to a 29-5 edge in second chance points in favor of the home squad. The Storm had nine more makes from three-point range, including seven for Lake Erie in the second half alone.
 
Crew Cain was the team's leading scorer with 15 points off the bench. Emmanuel Oladeru (12 points) and Jacob Ernst (10 points) were also in double-digits. Oladeru grabbed a team-high seven rebounds while Josiah Pierre distributed four assists to lead Malone.
 
The Storm came away with points on each of their first four offensive possessions to claim a 9-6 lead in the first three minutes of action. Pierre, Oladeru, Jake Bruns and Joey DeGeorge scored in the midst of a modest 9-3 run for the Pioneers that gave the visitors a 19-17 lead at the under-12 media timeout.
 
From there, Lake Erie went on a 12-2 run and took a lead that would not be relinquished. Malone was held to six points in the final five minutes of the first half and went to the locker room at a 47-34 deficit.
 
Back-to-back three's to start the second half continued the positive momentum for the Storm and their defense limited the Pioneers to just two points over the course of the first seven minutes of the period. By the time the bleeding stopped, the lead was all the way up to 27 at 63-36.
 
Malone searched the paint and were mildly successful with the likes of Oladeru and Ernst inside as well as Cain on the drive, but the gap was too much to overcome. Kellen Leake, Austin Niekamp and Tate Aljancic all got on the board late, but ultimately the team was defeated by a final score of 87-65.
 
The Pioneers look to get back in the win column in non-conference action on Wednesday, December 17 at Grand Valley State University. The start time is set for 6:00 P.M.