SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. - Lewis Johnson finished with a team-high 18 points and six rebounds while Yusuf Mohamed added 12 points and eight boards but Westminster men's basketball (1-2) fell behind by double digits in the second half and lost, 81-71, on the road on Friday night at Lake Superior State (1-0).

Westminster led by as many as seven in the first, taking its largest lead of the opening half on a Mohamed three-pointer at the 13:26 mark.  LSSU responded with an 8-0 run to go ahead 16-15 and the two teams traded leads another four times over the final nine and a half minutes of the opening half before a Ryan Bell dunk with eight seconds on the clock sent the teams into the break tied at 36-36.

Reme Torbert, who finished with 15 points, scored 13 on 3-of-5 from deep and 5-of-8 shooting overall in the first half while Lewis Johnson and Mohamed combined for 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting in the first.

The Griffins were the first to win back momentum and led by as many as five in the early stages of the second, taking its largest lead of the half on a Brayden Johnson three-pointer two and half minutes out of the intermission.  Lake Superior would answer back, however, and took control of the game midway through the second with a 13-3 run to go ahead by a 13 with seven minutes to play.

LSSU was 50 percent (7-of-14) from long range in the second half and knocked down 19 free throws on the night to begin its season with a 10-point win.  The Griffins finished 26-of-51 (51 percent) from the field as a team and a 29-21 rebounding advantage, but Westminster was unable to make enough stops defensively down the stretch to recover from the Lakers' big second-half run.

Westminster will be back in the Ronald "Bud" Cooper Gymnasium to take on Lake Superior State again tomorrow afternoon beginning at 1 p.m. (MDT).

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