HOUGHTON, Mich. – The Michigan Tech men's basketball team found itself down by 12 points with 9:27 to play in the second half and climbed all the way back with a dramatic finish as junior guard Marcus Tomashek called game with a fading jumper from the right elbow with two seconds to play to ultimately overcome Saginaw Valley State, 68-66 at the SDC Gymnasium on Thursday to remain perfect at home.
The Huskies have now won ten of their last 11 games, for an overall record of 11-4 and 6-1 in the GLIAC, while the Cardinals drop to 6-9 overall and 2-5 in the loop.
"If you told me we were going to get that shot I'd take that one hundred times out of a hundred–when you have a guy like him sometimes it's best just to let him make something happen," said Tech head coach Josh Buettner. "Hobson was unbelievable tonight and what really made him valuable was that he was good defensively–he was an X factor in this game."
Countless times in the first half, the Cardinal dynamic duo of Toodles Seal and Freddie McIntosh hit tough shots in one-on-one situations as they combined for points in the first half as the Huskies struggled to keep pace in the opening 20 minutes, shooting 34.6 percent from the field compared to the 46.7 percent from SVSU while connecting on 6-for-12 from long range to head into halftime leading the home team 35-27.
The Huskies opened the second half with a triple by junior Josh Terrian to cut the lead to five points before the Cardinals hit back-to-back triples to take a double-digit lead, helping the opposition sustain a multiple-possession lead for most of the final period. Veteran guard Adam Hobson provided a spark and kept the game close with a 3-pointer followed up with a steal and score capped by a monstrous dunk in transition to put him three points away from the 1,000 career point milestone.
SVSU got an emphatic dunk from Elijah Mattingly with 9:27 to play to make it a 12-point affair. However, the Tomashek takeover would start moments later as the GLIAC Preseason Player of the Year lived up to the hype once again with back-to-back triples for the Huskies to cut the lead to eight points. Less than a minute later, Nate Abel knocked down a clutch 3-pointer to make it a two-possession game (61-56) with 6:57 to play.
From 5:03 to play to the finish, Tomashek scored the Huskies final 12 points, going 6-for-6 from the charity stripe and hitting three shots, including the game-winner with two seconds to play. Defensively, the Black & Gold held SVSU to three points off a 3-pointer by McIntosh in the final five minutes.
"They missed a pretty wide-open 3-pointer—we got lucky a little bit and then we knew we were getting the last shot and have a good shot to win the game," Tomashek added. "Obviously the team trusts me and I trust them throughout the whole game too, if I needed to make a pass there I would've trusted all my guys to hit a shot there too."
Tomashek led all scorers with 29 points (7-16) while Dawson Nordgaard added 12 points and Josh Terrian recorded a team-high eight rebounds.
Toodles Seal led a quartet of Cardinals in double-figure scoring with 18 points as Freddie McIntosh added 16 points, Elijah Mattingly finished with 11 points and a team-leading 11 boards and Bryson Huckeby rounded the scorers with 10 points.
Up Next
The Huskies wrap a three-game homestand on Saturday, welcoming Wayne State to the SDC Gymnasium at 2:00 p.m.
