HOUGHTON, Mich. – The No. 1 seeded Michigan Tech men's basketball team trailed by as much as 17 points at the 13:40 mark of the second half and battled all the way back but could not overcome the No. 4 seeded Northern Michigan, falling in the GLIAC Tournament Semifinals 69-68 at the SDC Gymnasium on Saturday.

"I'm proud of the guys, getting down 17 and coming all the way back and giving yourself a chance to win the game is really good, I wish we could get a stop down the stretch but we just couldn't," Tech head coach Josh Buettner said. "We battled through a 4-24 shooting in our own gym and that hasn't happened to us shooting the three at home all year. There were a couple of offensive rebounds that really hurt us. I don't think we played a great game, but we still had our best player getting a pretty clean look on the shot he wanted, which was almost down."

Northern Michigan maintained momentum and a lead for most of the first half, using multiple runs to pull ahead by as many as 12 points as the Wildcats shot 48.1 percent from the field compared to Michigan Tech's 38.5 percent, going a troubling one-for-12 from 3-point land in the first 20 minutes of play. 

Dylan Kuehl shot 50 percent in the opening half to lead the Wildcats, shooting four-of-eight from the field adding three points from the charity stripe to help NMU enter halftime with a 33-25 advantage.

The No. 20 nationally-ranked Huskies shot better from the field in the second half but still couldn't find any rhythm beyond the arc, shooting just three-of-10 in the second 20 minutes. Michigan Tech was near perfect from the foul line, connecting on 18-of-20 from the charity stripe with the GLIAC Player of the Year, Marcus Tomashek, doing most of the damage, shooting 14-of-15, scoring 20 of his game-high 28 points in the second half. 

The Black & Gold had spurts of offensive outputs with a 13-0 run starting at the 13:40 mark, cutting the Wildcats large lead to just four points capped at the 10:08 mark from a 3-pointer by Ty Fernholz (54-51). 

A dunk from Kuehl with 8:39 to play put the Wildcats ahead by seven points for the final time as Adam Hobson scored nine points down the stretch to keep the Huskies in a one-possession affair the final 5:57. 

In a second half that saw seven ties and four lead changes, Tomashek scored nine points in the final 4:41 and had a clean look from 3-point land with two seconds to go in regulation, down 69-68. However, the shot didn't fall and Hobson didn't have enough time to get a last-second heave off in time, deciding the game at 69-68 in favor of Northern Michigan.

Kuehl finished with a team-leading 26 points and eight rebounds for the Wildcats. Jackson Dudek also reached double-figure scoring with 11 points.

Up Next

The regular season GLIAC Champions will have to wait for the selection show on Sunday at 11 p.m. EST to see if their season continues in the NCAA Tournament. In the latest regional rankings, the Huskies were the top team from the GLIAC, sitting at No. 2 in the Midwest.