SALEM, West Virginia - After three straight road contests to start off the 2022-2023 campaign for the Salem men's basketball team, head coach Brett Rector's squad matched up with the Lake Erie College Storm. Salem played well from whistle to whistle, and controlled the game most of the way. However, it would be the Storm who came away with a razor thin 75-74 victory on a heartbreaking three point shot with just 1 second left on the game clock. 

In the first half, Salem was energized by their home crowd and quickly jumped out to a strong 10-2 lead. Salem distributed the ball well for much of the first half as 7 players found scoring opportunities for the Tigers. However, the Storm were hanging in tough, and never allowed to push their lead much further a few brackets. Salem controlled the game, however at the half by a score of 38-32. 

In the second, it was the Storm that slowly scrapped their way through the half as they consistently ate away at the Tigers lead. Salem had some big shots down the stretch from Rodney Smith and Stan Smith. It would be Stan Smith who gave the Tigers a thin 74-72 lead with key foul shots in the final seconds of the game. However, Lake Erie would get the ball back with 10 seconds to go. The Storm drove down and kicked out for a corner three to put the game at 75-74 with a lone second on the clock. On the final play of the game, Riley Heatherington threw up a desperation pass the full length of the court that ended up in the arms of a Lake Erie defender, and the Storm pulled away with the tight 75-74 win. 

On the stats sheet, Salem was led by the familiar duo of Stan Smith with 28 points and Rodney Smith with 12 points. Justin Tene also found his way into double figures with 11 for the Tigers. 

While tonight's game did not go the Salem way, the Tigers will be looking to bounce back on Monday, November 21st as USCAA foe Washington Adevntist comes to town for a 6 pm bout.