Michigan Tech guard Jesse Napgezek dunks during a game against Saginaw Valley State at the SDC Gym in Houghton. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)

HOUGHTON — Coming into Thursday, the No. 17 Michigan Tech Huskies men’s basketball team was looking for a pair of wins at home to bounce back from a pair of road losses the week before. They took care of things Thursday over Lake Superior State by scoring 96 points in a win.

Saturday, the Huskies turned up their defense in a 62-52 win over the Saginaw Valley State Cardinals at the SDC Gym. With the two wins during Winter Carnival weekend, the Huskies improved to 20-4 overall and 11-3 in GLIAC play.

“It’s big. Obviously, this was 20 wins, that’s a big milestone,” said Huskies coach Josh Buettner. “That’s not what our goals are, and there’s a lot of season left, but everything’s been hard. These were two very different games, the way they were played. We played in a million close games. We played all different kinds of styles. The way the games are played, the way they’re officiated.

“I think our group is prepared, but we’re also an old group, a tired group. That’s when you’re taking everybody’s best shot. You can get a little worn down. We’re just trying to break down the end of the season. We said this was treat this kind of like a tournament. We have two home games here. It’s Carnival. Let’s just talk about this, and then we’ll move on to the next thing.”

The Huskies, who have been focused on their defense for the past couple of weeks in practice, saw that work pay off against the Cardinals.

“I think it was a better played basketball game, probably, than it might have felt to some people,” Buettner said. “I do think there was pretty good defense played in the first half. There were some missing shots, but it wasn’t like there were a ton of wide-open ones. Thought they (the referees) let guys be physical, and there just weren’t many easy baskets to be had.”

While senior guard Marcus Tomashek, the Huskies’ leading scorer, was held to just 14 points in the game, the Huskies got 18 points from freshman guard Jesse Napgezek, who tied his season-high total.

“He still needs to learn to have the level of urgency in the group,” said Buettner. “We know how good he’s going to be, and it’s hard when you’re taking everybody’s best shot. Every game this year seems to come down to the wire. He needs to learn how important every possession is. He’s getting better at it. He has a big-time future, and, obviously, he was huge today.”

It started with a dunk 4:45 into the game. At the time, Napgezek’s play only made the score 4-2 in favor of Michigan Tech, but it helped set a tone. He made a couple of other layups in the first half to make it 15-4 and 20-13 before he was involved in another key first-half play.

He attempted a basket with 2:48 left, and while his shot missed, the rebound bounced to redshirt senior forward Dawson Nordgaard, who grabbed the ball with one hand and managed a layup all in one motion.

“We talk a lot about the gritty points and things like that,” said Buettner. “That’s what a couple of those were. The Nordgaard one on the rebound was huge.”

The two teams combined to go 0-for-20 from beyond the arc in the first half. The Cardinals never found one in the second half either, going 0-for-19 as a team. The Huskies got one just 2:53 into the second half when senior guard Josh Terrian hit one. Napgezek hit a 3-pointer of his own from right in front of the Michigan Tech bench at 7:32. The Huskies added two more, one from Tomashek as part of a four-point play as he was also fouled and made the free throw with 5:49 remaining in the contest.

The other three was from junior guard Matt Schmainda, who hit one 10:11 into the half.

Nordgaard finished with 15 points for the Huskies on 7-of-12 shooting from the floor and 1-for-3 from the free throw line.

“Obviously, it’s awesome, but some of that is they guarded him 1-on-1, and let him kind of go to work,” Buettner said. “He doesn’t get that very often. It’s hard, because his impact on the game offensively sometimes is much greater than how many points he scored, or even the assists, because it’s creating the advantage.

“There’s so many teams that are fronting and doubling him that when he gets fronted, he’s not getting an assist when it gets skipped to the other side. But, he created the advantage that got us in a long closeout, or got the other team in a rotation that ends up finding an open three when he gets doubled.”

Kevonne Taylor led the Cardinals in scoring with 14 points.

Up next

The Huskies start a four-game road trip next Thursday with a game against Purdue Northwest in Hammond, Indiana. They will follow that up with a game Saturday against Wayne State in Detroit.