PAINESVILLE, Ohio - Down 17, the Dragons had the Storm right where they wanted them.
Tiffin fought back and trailed 60-56 with 5:05 left before a pair of freebies by Scott and a layup by Cuellar tied the game. Lake Erie split from the line in its next possession, but a jumper by senior Brian Scott gave Tiffin its first lead with 3:24 left. The Storm fought to take a 67-64 lead, but a three-pointer by Joe Graessle tied the game with 17.6 left. However, a TU foul and Riley Thomas split from the line gave the Storm the lead.
Junior Karl Finley's length of the court drive with five seconds left came up short and the Dragons had its second straight 68-67, heartbreaking loss on the road in conference play.
Brandon Harris nearly block partied his way to his first career double-double with 10 boards and nine blocks, both single-game highs for the junior. Harris has recorded at least one block in the last 15 games and has a rejection in 23 of 25 games this season.
Scott matched a career-high with 27 points, including five three-pointers. Scott added six rebounds, four on the offensive glass, with four assists and no turnovers. Finley added 16 points, including making all four from the charity stripe.
Ethan Bradshaw exploded for 26 for the Storm.
The Storm jumped out to a 10-0 lead and a 21-9 advantage at the first media timeout thanks to a decisive edge on the boards (11-3) and an 8-15 (53.3%) shooting mark from the field. Tiffin responded and cut the deficit to three thanks to a 9-0 run over the next two minutes. Scott started things off with a jumper that was blocked twice but still found the bottom of the net and classmate Rafael Cuellar split a pair from the line to cut the deficit to 21-14. After an offensive foul by the Storm, Finley added a lay-up and Harris added a thunderous dunk to climb within 21-18 with 9:50 left in the half. Lake Erie brought it back to 12 before back-to-back treys by Finley cut the disadvantage in half, but the Storm built it to the 40-29 halftime advantage thanks to a three and a steal and fast break layup by Brandon Smith.
The Lake Erie advantage ballooned to 17 thanks on a fast break layup by Jeremy Bilancione, but Tiffin responded with a 13-5 run to tie the game at 60. Scott got the spurt started with a jumper and a trey before a Bradshaw layup pushed the home lead back to seven. Scott continued the spurt with a pair of treys to cut Lake Erie's lead to 57-56 with 6:48 left. Bradshaw tried to stem momentum with a layup and a split from the line, but Scott and Cuellar tied the game at 60 with a pair of field goals before the frantic finish.
Matching a single-game high with 27 points against the Storm, Scott now has 1,047 career points and is 26th on the all-time Dragon scoring list. He trails Art Loescher by eight points going in to the final game of his collegiate career.
Tiffin closes out the regular season Saturday when it hosts Ohio Dominican for senior day. Game time is 1 p.m.
