ALLENDALE, Mich. — Michigan Tech pushed Grand Valley State down the stretch, but the Lakers came up with timely scores to defeat the Huskies 69-59. True freshman Mike Hojnacki scored a career-high 19 points in the losing effort.

Tech trailed 10 early in the first half and battled back to within 25-18 at the half. Fedrick Bowe's dunk two minutes into the second half pulled the Huskies to within two, but the hosts answered with the next seven points.

The Black and Gold worked their deficit down under five points on nine different occasions in the second half, but GV had the answer every time. One of Mike Hojnacki's four 3-pointers in the game made the score 53-50 with 7:38 to go. The Lakers (17-6 overall and 12-6 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) then scored the next 10 points for a 13-point margin.

Tech put on a full-court press in the final minutes and could've cut the deficit to six with a Robby Springborn 3-pointer at the 2:22 mark. The shot misfired and the Lakers did enough in the waning seconds to pull out the victory.

Springborn, who entered the game needing 13 points for 1,000 in his career, scored just four — 10 shy of his season average.

Hojnacki was 7-of-10 from the field en route to a new career high. Fedrick Bowe added 12 points and was the only other Tech player in double figures.

Shooting percentages were the difference. The hosts connected on 64 percent of their second-half looks for 52 percent for the game. They also made 5-of-6 (83 percent) from long range. Tech shot 40 percent from the field in the contest including 5-of-20 from 3-point range.

Michigan Tech (12-11 overall and 9-9 in the GLIAC), which finished its four-game road swing with a 3-1 record, will return home for a battle with No. 1-ranked Findlay on Thursday (Feb. 19). Tipoff at the SDC Gym is slated for 7:30 p.m.