HOUGHTON, Mich. -- It's conference time for the Michigan Tech men's basketball team as the Huskies play host to Parkside Thursday and Purdue Northwest on Saturday. Thursday's contest is slated for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff, while Saturday's contest has a 2 p.m. start time.
Watch the Huskies
All home and GLIAC games will be streamed on FloCollege. Michigan Tech fans can watch all home and conference games in volleyball, basketball, football and soccer with one subscription. FloSports provides each subscriber with access to all content and events with the purchase of a monthly or yearly subscription. Subscriptions are offered in two different billing packages - monthly and annual. Discounts are available for students enrolled at GLIAC member and associate member institutions. You must subscribe with a .edu email address to be eligible. FloSports is available on iOS, Android, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, and Chromecast.
Huskies Spirit Shirt Giveaway
The first 200 fans at each basketball game this Saturday will receive a free Huskies Spirit Shirt, printed by Superior Graphics.
Copper Country Community Mental Health Awareness Day
The Michigan Tech basketball teams will host a Copper Country Community Mental Health (CCCMH) Awareness Day during their GLIAC doubleheader against Purdue Northwest this Saturday, December 7th at noon and 2 pm. CCCMH consumers will play a short game at halftime during the women's and men's games to help raise awareness of the services Copper Country Community Mental Health provides in the four-county area.
About the Rangers
Parkside begins conference play after completing the opening round of non-conference contests, holding an overall record of 2-4, most recently defeating Concordia University Chicago (93-67) on Nov. 26. The Rangers have played a familiar foe, falling to then-No. 13 Minnesota Duluth, (73-43) on Nov. 17.
The Rangers rank last in the GLIAC, producing 61.7 points per game while shooting 42.1 percent from the field. Graduate Student forward Nick Brown is the team's leading scorer with 15.3 points per outing and a season-high 26-point outburst against Minnesota Crookston (Nov. 16). Senior forward Cameron Mallory adds eight points and a team-leading 5.7 boards.
Parkside has found success from beyond the arc, shooting 37.1 percent from 3-point range for 9.4 3-pointers a game—which ranks second in the league and 30th in the country.
Luke Reigel is in his 24th season at the helm of the Rangers, who were predicted to finish in a tie for sixth in the GLIAC.
About the Pride
Purdue Northwest wrapped its opening non-conference ledger with a 2-4 record. The Pride most recently bested Great Lakes Christian College (120-74) on Tuesday (Nov. 26).
Collin Albert has scored over 100 points in six games to average a team-leading 16.8 points per outing, which ranks sixth in the GLIAC. As a team, PNW produces a GLIAC-high 87.3 points per game while also allowing the most points (82.7) per game.
Detalian Brown and Jalen Nelson each add 15.3 points per game, with Nelson also being the lead facilitator with 3.7 assists. Senior forward Dalton Gayman ranks second in the GLIAC with 7.8 rebounds a game to go with 9.6 points.
Purdue Northwest was selected to finish ninth in the league as Boomer Roberts returns for his seventh season leading the Pride.
About the Huskies
Michigan Tech opens GLIAC play on a two-game win streak with back-to-back wins against NSIC foes. The Huskies downed then-No. 3 MSU Moorhead 74-70 (Nov. 23) and followed that win with a home-opener victory over St. Cloud State 88-70 (Nov. 27).
Wednesday's win might have been the most complete game played thus far for the Huskies as they racked up 88 points for the second time this season, shooting 51.7 percent from the field (30-for-58) while knocking down a season-high 14 triples (14-for-28).
Sophomore guard Matt Schmainda was lethal from downtown, scoring a new career-high, going 5-for-8 from 3-point land for 15 points, adding three assists.
Junior guard Marcus Tomashek continues to be a certified walking bucket, producing 27.1 points a game, the third-most in Division II. He scored a team-leading 20 points in the win over SCSU and earned national recognition for the prior weekend, where he averaged 60 points in the weekend split against two top-six teams, awarding him NABC/D2SIDA Division II Player of the Week along with GLIAC Offensive Player of the Week honors.
Junior Dawson Nordgaard has posted six games of double-digit scoring, averaging 11.3 points and a team-leading 1.3 blocks per game. Senior Pete Calcaterra (11.4) and first-year guard Ty Fernholz (11.4) join Tomashek and Nordgaard with double-figure scoring averages.
Redshirt freshman Gabe Smith is off to a great start for the Black & Gold, recording a career-high four steals in Wednesday's win, appearing in 13.9 minutes per game in his first season for the Huskies.
One Last Thing
Fernholz, a freshman guard from Stoughton, Wisconsin, ranks second in the league in 3-point field goal percentage (48.4), making 15-for-31 from long range in five games of action.
