Gabe Smith’s fourth double-double of the season leads the Huskies
HOUGHTON, Mich. – The Michigan Tech men’s basketball team won its eight-straight game and earned its fourth GLIAC weekend of the season with an 83-65 win over Purdue Northwest at the SDC Gymnasium on Saturday.
Gabe Smith secured his fourth double-double of the season and led the team in scoring (17) and rebounds (10) as Marcus Tomashek added 15 points and a team-high five assists as Jesse Napgezek had 13 points off the bench in 18 minutes.
Michigan Tech improves 19-2 overall and 10-1 to lead the GLIAC. Purdue Northwest drops to 7-10 overall and 3-7 in the loop.
“We played closer to a full 40 minutes, we still had a few lulls in there but we came out focused today and Purdue Northwest is a pretty explosive team and I thought we got back to our defensive foundation that we were relying on earlier in the season,” said Tech head coach Josh Buettner. “I thought we executed well offensively in the first half and for the most part we were pretty locked in defensively. It’s a step in the right direction and we’ve got to keep improving.”
The Huskies connected on five of their first seven shots led by Tomashek hitting 3-4 from the field to jump out to a 13-2 edge by the 15:46 mark, forcing a Purdue Northwest timeout.
Tomashek had back-to-back assists translating into a dunk by Smith and a layup by Jesse Napgezek to keep the Huskies ahead 19-9 at the media timeout (11:25).
Tomashek contributed on three-straight possessions down the stretch finding Smith in the paint for an and-one and another layup sandwiched between a midrange jumper to make it 39-24 with 2:12 remaining in the opening half.
The Huskies forced a PNW timeout with 45.9 seconds to play after a 3-pointer by Abel and a putback by Napgezek to push the Black & Gold ahead by 19 points, the largest lead of the day at 44-25 before Purdue Northwest knocked down a triple to decide the first half at 44-28.
Michigan Tech shot 52.9 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes and earned 24 points in the paint and eight points off of Purdue Northwest turnovers. Tomashek led all scorers with 10 points at the half, adding a game-high five assists.
The Huskies outscored the Pride 13-10 through the first eight minutes of the second half, capitalizing on 5-of-7 free throws while Terrian and Tomashek cashed in from long range to keep the Black & Gold ahead 57-38. Smith also added a 3-pointer minutes later off an assist by Terrian.
Michigan Tech got the Pride in foul trouble and secured the bonus with 10:18 to play in the game, with Napgezek converting on two free throws to make it 61-42.
However, the Pride also reached the bonus with under nine minutes to play, as the two teams combined for 38 foul shots in the second half. Michigan Tech finished 16-21 from the charity stripe as Napgezek went 5-6 and Abel added 4-4.
The Huskies got ahead by as many as 25 points in the second half, coming with 5:04 to play after two free throws by Napgezek (74-49).
Smith led the team in scoring with eight points as Napgezek recorded seven, with the lone field goal being a slam dunk with 3:10 to play, pushing the Black & Gold ahead by 23 points (77-54).
Ty Fernholz and Drew Barrie hit 3-pointers for the Huskies, with under 90 seconds to play, as the Black & Gold ultimately cruised to an 18-point decision (83-65).
Kwat Adbelkarim and Davontae Hall each recorded 12 points to lead the Pride as Kevin Taylor had a team-high six boards.
Up Next
The Huskies head back out on the road next week, traveling to Davenport on Thursday before a Saturday tilt against Grand Valley State.
