Michigan Tech forward Peyton LaCombe dunks during an exhibition game against Lakeland Saturday at the SDC Gym in Houghton. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)

HOUGHTON — While the win doesn’t count in the standings, the No. 12 Michigan Tech Huskies men’s basketball team made their home debut Saturday with a 92-56 victory over the Lakeland Muskies at the SDC Gym.

More impressively, they did it without the services of senior guard Marcus Tomashek.

“I thought we were pretty focused at the beginning,” said Huskies coach Josh Buettner. “I thought the first group really guarded hard, made it hard for him to score anything, and I was happy with that part. Obviously, it’s good to see the ball going a little bit more, 92, I don’t think we’ve scored over 70 at this point this year, but we still have a little ways to go on our offensive execution.

“There’s some things we weren’t sharp enough at. The 17 turnovers is way too many; missed the free throws. There’s just some things that can be cleaned up, definitely. But, all in all, I thought the effort was pretty good. I thought we tried to share the ball.”

The Huskies (5-1 overall) got 16 points from sophomore guard Ty Fernholz, 13 from redshirt senior forward Dawson Nordgaard, 12 from sophomore guard Grant Warren and 11 from freshman guard Jesse Napgezek in the win.

For the Huskies, getting a chance to play a number of players off the bench was one of the key aspects of the game.

“The part I like right now, it’s been the other six non-conference games, is, honestly, it’s been different people at different times, and that makes it hard to guard,” Buettner said. “Just lots of different guys stepping up. As Marcus keeps getting back into form, you always have that ultimate weapon slowly coming around. So, if you have five, six, seven, there’s some other guys on this team that can do it, that show you they can get hot and step up on a given night. That’s when you start becoming really hard to guard.”

Fernholz was 4-of-11 from 3-point range and 6-of-13 from the floor. He also had a steal and an assist.

Nordgaard took advantage of the matchup he had and dominated the post for Michigan Tech. Not only did he make 6-of-7 from the floor, but he added five rebounds, four assists and a block for a well-rounded night.

“They didn’t have anybody to match up with him,” said Buettner. “I thought he could have got another bucket or two, but he’s been pretty solid. It’s one of those situations where I always, if anything, we’re just trying to get him to want the ball a little more in the post. I get some of that’s on us.

“We need to get guys looking for him there. There’s some times when he can just want a little more. It’s good to see it go in. Our two fives that were playing most of the minutes were 11-for-13. Obviously, that’s the percentage you want when you go in there.”

He made his presence felt almost immediately by grabbing an offensive rebound and making a putback layup. He did that again a little over two minutes later, which put the Huskies up 11-2 at that point.

The Black and Gold never looked back from there.

Napgezek got involved with a layup 4:26 i, but struggled to get more involved from there in the half.

“This is just huge for young guys,” Buettner said. “(For) a true freshman to get to play 20-some minutes and, honestly, get to make decisions and handle it. With Marcus being out, (Jesse got to) playmake a little bit.

“The second half, I thought he was more aggressive. The first half, the plays where he didn’t look as comfortable were just not being aggressive. He was almost trying to be too unselfish. We’re trying to get him downhill.”

In the second half, he showed more confidence with more playing time. In the later stages of the half, he made a pair of layups back-to-back, showing his ability to get to the rim.

“In the second half, he got a little more aggressive,” said Buettner, “and he can bring a dynamic to our offense that we need.”

The Huskies got 34 points from the trio of Fernholz, Warren and sophomore guard Gabe Smith. Buettner loved how the three continued to be contributors.

With 10:24 remaining in the game, Buettner turned to Alex Calcaterra, Ethan Heck, Layne Risdon, and Luke Hazelton. The quartet struggled for the three minutes they were on the floor, and Buettner took the opportunity to pull them off the court three minutes later.

It was a good learning moment for all of them.
”They didn’t look very good the first couple minutes, and I get it, sometimes it’s hard,” Buettner said. “They were still playing against (guys who were in the game), and that’s what I wanted. I want them to play against the other team’s guys that have been in there, so that they’re getting real reps.”

The quartet returned to the court in the final minutes of the game and appeared to take their coach’s words to heart. After Risdon missed a pair of 3’s, Heck made a layup. Calcaterra followed that up with a 3 from the right side, and Risdon capped the scoring with a one-handed dunk over a Muskies defender.

“That was a lot of fun, because Layne didn’t look as comfortable as he’s been looking in practice up until then,” said Buettner. “I don’t know that we’ve seen him kind of dunk on somebody before. So, that was awesome for Layne.”

As good he felt about getting the win, Buettner still feels there is a lot of work ahead for the Huskies.

“I feel like we have a long way to go to reach what our potential is,” Buettner said.

Up next

The Huskies are back in action Thursday, when they open GLIAC play with a tough matchup against Roosevelt in Chicago. They follow that up with a Saturday matchup with Wisconsin-Parkside.