LSSU advances to regional final against Missouri-St. Louis
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – The No. 23 nationally-ranked Michigan Tech men’s basketball team concluded its GLIAC Championship season Sunday night with an 83-73 loss to Lake Superior State at the Recreation and Athletic Center on the campus of Illinois-Springfield.
Michigan Tech’s season ends at 24-8. Lake Superior State advances to the Sweet 16 with a record of 29-6.
“They came out and were more physical and playing more confident and experienced than us,” said GLIAC Coach of the Year, Josh Buettner. “Here we just couldn’t get over the hump—I thought we had it when we got to three, but we just didn’t have it. Credit to Lake State, they played really well. Kingsley getting in foul trouble might’ve hurt us when they went small and Harakow had a career game and we couldn’t find any success guarding him before it was too late.”
The dynamic guard duo of Adam Harakow and Tyson Edmondson scored 34 of the Lakers 45 first-half points. Harakow came off the bench providing an 8-of-10 spark from the field while going a perfect 3-of-3 from 3-point land as Edmondson added 13 points on 3-of-5 from three and three assists to help the Lakers lead for nearly the entire first half, heading into the locker room ahead 45-30.
As a team, LSSU shot 59.3 percent from the field and 53.8 from beyond the arc, only really struggling from the free-throw line, going six-of-11.
The GLIAC Player of the Year, junior guard Marcus Tomashek, scored a team-leading 12 points for the Black & Gold in the opening frame, going two-of-two from 3-point land and six-of-eight from the charity stripe. Dawson Nordgaard and Pete Calcaterra added six points apiece as the Huskies inside presence.
Nordgaard scored the first basket of the day before the Lakers found their groove, earning their first double-digit lead at the 12:59 mark off a fastbreak layup for Harako, who erupted for a career-high 31-point outburst in the game. The Huskies trailed by just seven points following three free throw makes from Tomashek before the Lakers earned its largest lead of the game with under a minute to go, with Harakow once again being the spark for his squad, knocking down a 3-pointer off a Huskies turnover (45-28).
Out of the break, Michigan Tech outscored Lake Superior State 43-38 and connected on seven 3-pointers led by Tomashek with three 3-pointers as Nate Abel supplied offense following foul trouble as Tomashek picked up his fourth foul with 13:54 to play, with all of his nine points coming in the second stanza.
The Black & Gold trailed by as many as 19 on two occasions before fighting all the way back into a one-possession game with 5:32 to go off of back-to-back 3-pointers by Tomashek (70-67).
However, the Lakers had an answer for every Tech basket and regained a double-figure advantage off a steal and score by Devin Womack, translating into a basket by Kingsley Perkins with 2:29 to play. LSSU cruised to the finish by an 83-73 decision.
Edmondson (22 pts) and Womack (11 pts) joined Harakow in double-figure scoring for the Lakers as Harakow also led the way on the boards with eight rebounds. Tomashek led the way for the Black & Gold with 23 points, as Nordgaard added 13 points, while Abel and Adam Hobson each recorded a team-leading seven rebounds.
The game concludes the careers of three seniors, Hobson, Michigan Tech’s program leader in games played with 141 in five years for the Huskies, Calcaterra and Brad Simonsen.
