(NORTH CANTON, Ohio) Jesse Hardin Jr. (6-2, Warren, OH/Harding) led a balanced Walsh (12-9, 8-9) attack with 20 points in a 76-67 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference win over Lake Erie College (8-13, 5-12). The win gives the third place Cavs a one-game lead over fourth place Malone, who lost to Ashland, in the GLIAC's South Division. Walsh trails first place Ashland by two games and second place Findlay (12-9, 9-8) by one game. Walsh is home to Ohio Dominican University on Thursday night at 7:30 pm. The game will be broadcast live on WNPQ FM 95.9 and streamed live (video) on TEAMLINE.

Trailing 25-21 with 7:50 to play in the first half, Walsh caught fire and outscored the Storm 20-6 to take a 41-31 lead into the locker room at halftime.  Walsh hit seven of their last eight shots from the floor to close the half. Hardin Jr. had 12 first half points on 4-6 from three-point. Davonte Beard (6-3, Sr., Akron, OH/St Vincent-St. Mary/Siena) added 11 points and Rian Burrell (6-3, Jr., Zanesville, OH/HS) hit 4-5 field goals and tallied 10 points.

The Cavs extended the lead to 18 points (54-36) in the first 3:33 of the second half, as Hardin Jr. and Zac Carter (5-9, So. Ironton, OH/HS) combined for the first 13 points.

Lake Erie would not go away however, as they used runs of 9-2, and 9-3 to cut the Walsh lead to 59-51 with 10:01 to play.

The Storm just kept rolling, as a 7-2 run pulled them to within three points at 61-58 with 7:54 left.

Walsh would regroup, and extend the lead back to eight points at 68-60 with 4:16 to play on a Trey Fletcher (6-6 So., Ironton, OH/HS) jumper. But Lake Erie wasn't done, as Jamil Dudley scored six quick points to pull the visitors to within three points at 68-65 with 3:09 to play.

Fletcher and Hardin Jr., then hit back-to-back jumpers to give Walsh a 72-65 lead with 1:48 to play. From here, Burrell and Beard hit two free throws each to ice the win.

Hardin Jr. was 7-13 from the floor and 5-8 from beyond the arc for his team-high 20 points. Beard was 4-7 from the floor and 7-9 from the line to finish with 15 points. Burrell was 5-8 from the floor and 2-3 from three-point to finish with 14 points off the bench and Carter was 2-3 from three-point and also tallied 14 points.

Walsh shot 51% from floor on 28-55, and 47% from three-point on 9-19. Led by L.J. Campbell's (6-8, Sr., Weirton, WV/Weir) game-high eight rebounds, Walsh outrebounded Lake Erie 32-30.

Lake Erie's Jamil Dudley led all scorers with 24 points. Andy Bosley added 17 points and Michael Morris was 4-4 from three-point and finished with 12 points.