WISCONSIN DELLS, Wis. — With a loss on Friday and a win on Saturday, the No. 13 Michigan Tech Huskies men’s basketball team improved to 3-1 on the season during the D2 Midwest Region Tip-Off.

The Huskies fell to Missouri-St. Louis on Friday, 78-57, but bounced back with a 72-61 victory on Saturday over Maryville.

Strength in numbers elevates No. 13 Huskies over Maryville

The Huskies saw five players reach double-figure scoring en route to a 72-61 victory over GLVC foe Maryville to wrap the D2 Midwest Region Tip-off hosted at the JustAGame Fieldhouse in the Wisconsin Dells, on Saturday afternoon.

Redshirt sophomore guard Gabe Smith produced a team-leading 16 points, shooting 7-of-9 from the field to go with three rebounds, three assists and two steals. Senior guard Nate Abel had a career day for Michigan Tech with 15 points (5-of-7), a career-high 11 rebounds for his first double-double, while adding a career-high five steals and four assists.

Senior guard Marcus Tomashek added 14 points, four rebounds and two assists as redshirt senior forward Dawson Nordgaard (5-of-7) and sophomore forward Grant Warren (4-of-6) totaled 10 points, respectively. Warren also had a team-leading two blocks in the win.

Michigan Tech improves to 3-1 on the season as Maryville drops to 0-2 on its season-opening weekend.

“I liked our effort today, bouncing back from yesterday. It was a good win,” said Huskies coach Josh Buettner. “We need a good week of practice to get better before some more huge challenges next weekend.”

The two teams were evenly matched most of the first half, with the Huskies not trailing in the game until midway through with a dunk by Evan Palmquist. Shortly after, Michigan Tech rattled off 10-straight points, highlighted by a 3-pointer from senior guard Josh Terrian and back-to-back layups by Smith, capped by a Nordgaard layup with five minutes to play, making it 28-20 in favor of Michigan Tech.

The Huskies endured a slight scoring lapse, although Abel cashed in on two free throws to help keep his squad ahead, going into halftime with a slight edge of 30-27.

After shooting 40 percent from the field in the opening period and allowing eight offensive boards to the opposition, the Huskies turned up the dial and dropped 42 points in the second stanza, shooting 57.7 percent from the field while winning the battle on the glass 17-13.

Michigan Tech scored nine points before the Saints found a bucket to begin the second frame, with 3-pointers by Tomashek and Abel helping push the advantage before Warren hit a jumper to make it an 11-point lead with 16:13 to go. The Huskies’ largest lead of the day came with 2:58 to play from a driving layup by Michigan Tech’s All-American, Tomashek, as Smith earned his third assist of the day (66-53).

The Saints won the rebound battle by a narrow margin of 36-35, although the Huskies earned 36 points in a physical contest that saw five players commit four personal fouls.

Henry Sanchez had a game-high 20 points for the Saints, who saw two additional players reach double-digit scoring. Kobe Clark led his team with nine rebounds while adding two points.

No. 13 Huskies slip up against Tritons Friday

The Huskies shot over 50 percent from the field in the second half, but were unable to overcome a 42-23 first half deficit, falling to Missouri-St. Louis, 79-57, Friday.

“We completely no-showed today, credit UMSL for having the urgency that I hoped we would have,” said Buettner. “It’s on me for not doing and saying the right things to have us ready to go.”

Michigan Tech (2-1) fell behind early in the first half as Missouri-St. Louis (1-2) shot 55.2 percent from the field while winning the rebounding battle 23-9, including six offensive boards. The Tritons led from the opening minutes and saw their lead grow to as much as 19-points with 34 seconds remaining in the half.

UMSL also took advantage of the free throw line, cashing in on nine-of-11 attempts compared to one-of-five for Michigan Tech.

Sophomore guard Ty Fernholz provided a spark off the bench as Michigan Tech endured multiple scoring droughts in the opening period, shooting 32.1 percent from the field and 4-for-13 from deep, with Fernholz going two-for-four to add six points while veteran Marcus Tomashek led the Huskies with eight-points heading into halftime down 42-23.

Fernholz chipped away at the Tritons’ lead midway through the second half with back-to-back triples with Terrian assisting, cutting the deficit to 18 (62-44) with 11:34 to go.

UMSL maintained a double-digit lead for the entirety of the second half, with a jumper by Tomashek with 10:09 to play making it a 14-point game, the closest the Huskies would get before Missouri-St. Louis would claim the game by a score of 78-57.

The Tritons won the rebounding battle 36-18 with 11 offensive boards on the day to go with 13 steals that translated into 20 points.

Tomashek and Fernholz scored in double-figures with 15 and 13 points, respectively. Smith had a team-high three steals and seven rebounds to go with five points, as Terrian had a team-leading four assists. Warren amassed three blocks off the bench in 14 minutes of action.

Three Tritons reached double-digit scoring led by Taye Moore’s 27 points, while Jake Hamilton added 18 and Vincent Davis III finished with 12. Davis III and Quenton Parker led the way with eight rebounds, respectively.

Up next

The Huskies continue the non-conference slate, traveling to Minnesota for the St. Louis County Basketball Classic, hosted by Minnesota-Duluth, where Michigan Tech will clash with Minnesota-Duluth on Friday (7 p.m. EST) before a matchup with St. Cloud State on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. (EST).