LAKELAND, Fla. – The No. 13 nationally-ranked Michigan Tech men's basketball team outlasted its second-ranked opponent in OT with a 66-65 thriller against No. 19 Lenoir-Rhyne at the Small College Basketball Hall of Fame Classic on Sunday.Â
The Huskies conclude the weekend on the campus of Florida Southern with a 2-0 ledger to start the season.
Senior guard Marcus Tomashek led all scorers with 33 points and tied the team high with Nate Abel at seven rebounds. Abel also had a team-high three steals while Matt Schmainda had nine points and six rebounds, five on the offensive side.
"To find a way to win in back-to-back overtime games is just an incredible feeling and I'm really proud of these guys," said Michigan Tech ",Overall i don't feel like we executed well for the games we played and its early in the season, but we were gritty and tough and those things made up for our lack of execution on the other side. We want to be more balanced, but I'm proud as heck and Nate and Matt next to me do all the little things that don't always show up in the box score."
Lenoir-Rhyne pulled ahead early in the first with a 7-0 run, making it 14-7 in favor of the Bears before a Huskies' timeout. LRU continued to pace the Black & Gold before a 3-pointer by Grant Warren and a jumper by Marcus Tomashek put the Huskies ahead 29-24 heading into halftime after the two teams went scoreless the final 2:30 of the opening period.
Tomashek accounted for seven points halfway through the second half, with the Huskies' largest lead of the day coming at the 16:17 mark (39-29) following a trip by Tomashek as part of his second-half scoring run.
Despite the hot start to the half, Michigan Tech had to navigate two long scoring droughts down the stretch, allowing the Bears to get back into the contest before taking their first lead since early in the first half at the 9:23 mark after Keyishon Miller went 1-of-2 from the free throw line (43-42).Â
Lenoir-Rhyne led by as much as five down the stretch as late as with 4:18 to go before Nate Abel and Tomashek knocked down back-to-back triples, with a Bears triple by Junior Hodnett happening between Tech baskets. From there, Tomashek would score the Huskies' final six points of the half with the final free-throw with 41 seconds remaining, resulting in another overtime on the weekend, tied at 61-all.
The two teams were scoreless through the first three minutes of overtime before Lenoir-Rhyne capitalized on a fastbreak dunk to break the tie. Gabe Smith stole the ball on the Bears' next possession, resulting in two buckets from Tomashek at the free throw line.
Fouls by both teams led to two free throws, first by Tomashek and then by Dozier, putting the Bears ahead by two with 50 seconds to go.
The Huskies kept the ball for 47 seconds with two offensive rebounds by Matt Schmainda, with the second one resulting in a 3-pointer by Ty Fernholz with three seconds to play, ultimately deciding the game at 66-65.
Up Next
The Huskies will return to the court in two weeks at the NCAA D2 Midwest Region Tip-off hosted at the JustAGame Fieldhouse in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, facing Missouri-St. Louis on Nov. 14 (2:00 p.m.) and Maryville on Nov. 15 (2:00 p.m.).
