BIG RAPIDS – Michigan Tech basketball team had its postseason-season run come to an end in the GLIAC Saturday, falling to the No. 2 seed Lake Superior State 70-56. The Huskies, who were the No. 6 seed in this year’s tournament, advanced to the GLIAC Final Four for the second year in a row with an 88-74 win Wednesday night at Wayne State.

“I thought Lake Superior State played better than we did today,” Michigan Tech Coach Kevin Luke said. “I felt like we had a decent first half, but the roles changed in the second. They weren’t shooting very well in the first half and got hot in the second half. Our offense cooled off in the final 20 minutes and credit their defense because I thought they did a good job covering up with help on Monroe and getting to the shooters. I’m very proud our guys for getting here to the semifinals, but wish we could have made a little better showing against a good Lake Superior State team.”

Lake Superior State (24-6) opened the game with a 9-3 run, but the Huskies owned a 35-34 edge at the half.

Senior A.J. Grazulis notched the first points of the second half for Tech to make it 37-34. From there the Huskies’ lead fluctuated from one to three points during the next few minutes. Bryan Heath bumped the score to 44-41 in favor of the Huskies with 13:36 to play, but Tech went on a scoring draught for five minutes after

that basket.

That opened the door for the Lakers to establish a foothold in the game. During that same span of time Lake Superior State put together a 16-0 scoring burst to establish a double-digit lead. The Huskies were unable to recover and trailed by double digits the rest of the way.

Kyle Monroe guided the Huskies on offense with 15 points and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds. Heath followed with 14 points, five rebounds and five assists. As a team the Huskies made 23 of 54 shots from the field (42.6 percent), were 5 of 19 from 3-point range (26.3 percent), and 5 of 7 at the free throw line (71.4 percent).

Akaemji Williams scored 18 points had dished out nine assist for the Lakers. Lake Superior State made 25 of 62 shots from the field (40.3 percent), 7 of 18 attempts from 3-point range (38.9 percent), and 13 of 21 free throws (61.9 percent).

The Huskies’ season comes to a close after making their 21st appearance in the GLIAC Tournament under Luke. Tech has been to the semifinals 17 times and has three tournament titles during that stretch.