Northwestern Ohio built a 17-point halftime lead and Lourdes was never able to recover on Saturday afternoon as the Gray Wolves fell to the 17^th-ranked Racers 71-59 at Racer Gymnasium in Lima, Ohio.
 
Lourdes shot just 29.2% from the floor in the opening 20 minutes while the Racers connected at a 65.2% clip in building their advantage.
 
Northwestern Ohio went on a 10-2 run early in the first half to build a 13-6 advantage, and, after Lourdes cut the deficit to two, went on a 22-6 spurt to break the game open.  The Gray Wolves trailed by as many as 19 in the first half before going in the locker room trailing 38-21.
 
Trailing 46-27 with just under 16 minutes to play, Lourdes went on a 12-2 run to pull within nine with 11 minutes remaining.  The Racers stemmed the spurt and eventually rebuilt a 13-point lead, 61-48, with 2:49 to play.  Lourdes battled back again, cutting the deficit to seven on an E.J. Blackwell (Rochester, Pa./Rochester H.S.) triple in the final minutes.  The Gray Wolves would not get any closer though as Northwestern Ohio would capture a share of the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference regular season title.
 
Blackwell led Lourdes with 20 points as the only Gray Wolf to finish in double figures.  Jake DuPree (Toledo, Ohio/Whiteford H.S.) and Noah Guthrie (Glouster, Ohio/Trimble H.S.) added eight points each for the Gray Wolves.
 
Josh Scott led Northwestern Ohio (14-6, 19-3 WHAC) with 19 points while Aaron Cross added 16 points for the Racers.
 
Lourdes (17-13, 13-9) will begin play in the WHAC tournament on Thursday evening with the quarterfinal round.  The Gray Wolves opponent will and location will be announced at a later date when pairings become official by the league office.