The Michigan Tech Men’s basketball team held off adversary Northern Michigan for a 77-66 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference triumph Sunday evening in the SDC Gym. The win stretched out the Huskies’ triumphant streak to three games and empowered them to split during the regular season with the Wildcats.
“I’m really happy for these guys and the program,” Michigan Tech Head Coach Kevin Luke said. “We were clearly disappointed with the outcome in Marquette and we talked about how we could be better as a unit today and focused on us. This is a huge rivalry game and both teams played like it. We were fortunate to get a little bit of a lead in the first half and we knew they would make a run at us in the second half. I’m proud of our team for hanging on by staying within ourselves and executing down the stretch.”
Michigan Tech made their intentions clear in the first three minutes of Sunday’s game by sinking the first two buckets of the afternoon. Junior’s Kyle Monroe and Bryan Heath both attacked the rim for layups to make it a 4-0 score. Northern Michigan countered to take what would be their only lead of the day, in the first half with a three-pointer scored by Jordon Perez to make it a 10-9 score.
Senior A.J. Grazulis and Heath collaborated to start a smaller than expected 7-0 run that pushed the Huskies back in front 16-10. Meanwhile, Tech’s defense continued to halt the Wildcats attack. Freshman Trent Bell gave the Huskies a 27-12 lead landing a free throw. Tech maintained a double-digit separation with Northern Michigan until the final minute of the half when a Sam Taylor layup made the score 32-23.
The second half started with back to back triples by Taylor and Will Carius to help pull the Wildcats to within five at 36-31. Michigan Tech regrouped to build the lead back to 11 points at 45-34. The Wildcats reduced the advantage by tying the score at 54-54 on a three-point basket by Isaiah Johnson. Grazulis put the Huskies on top again with a free throw on the ensuing possession and a trey by Monroe bumped the lead back up to four points at 58-54.
In spite of the fact that the Huskies never gave up the lead, but the Wildcats stayed within one to two possessions until the last 90 seconds. Leading 67-64, Heath came up with a huge layup followed by two free throws, creating an important 71-64 gap. Free throws were the name of the game in the final minute for the Huskies. Monroe, senior Tanner Uren, and sophomore Tommy Lucca converted two apiece at the line to seal the win for Tech.
Monroe paced the Huskies with a game-high of 31 and has scored 31 points or more for the seventh time this season. Monroe grabbed six rebounds and dished out a season-high six assists in addition to his point total. Grazulis followed Monroe by matching a season-high 13 points while contributing a team-best eight rebounds. Five of the rebounds were on the offensive end of the floor and a major contributing factor to 17 second-chance points in the contest for Tech. Heath rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10 points and five rebounds on Sunday.
Johnson paced Northern Michigan with 18 points, Naba Echols tossed in 16 points, and Carius tacked on 11 points in the contest. Echols delivered five assists and Myles Howard ended the day with a team-high eight rebounds.
Tech will next be in action this coming Thursday and Saturday when they face the Grand Valley State Lakers and Purdue Northwest Pride. Tip-off times are projected for 7:30 p.m. Thursday and 3 p.m. Saturday in the SDC Wood Gym.
