Armga Scores 38 In Win Over Southwest Minnesota State

HOUGHTON, Mich. – Austin Armga poured in a career-high 38 points, including 25 in the second half, to lead the Michigan Tech men's basketball team to an 86-64 win over Southwest Minnesota State on Friday (Nov. 22) night from the SDC Gym. Tech's three veteran guards Armga, Alex Culy and Ben Stelzer combined for 70 points as the Huskies improved to 2-0 on the season.

"When Austin gets in that type of situation we just let him go," Tech coach Kevin Luke said. "We tried to stay out of the way tonight and let him do his thing. When they had a guard on him we went inside but if he had a big guy he turned into a perimeter player."

Armga shot 15-for-18 from the field and 8-for-8 from the free throw line in the contest. He also had four steals.

"When the first couple go you get that confidence and it can carry through the whole game," said Armga. "The win feels good. I feel a unity with this team. We have so much energy and these first two games have been a lot of fun."

Tech went on a 24-8 run in the first 11 minutes of the second half to lead by 24 (61-38) after leading 38-30 at halftime. Armga had 14 points in the run and Culy added a pair of threes.

The Mustangs made a mini run of their own, scoring five straight. Armga answered on a three-point play then added a layup for a 26-point (66-43) lead with 8:11 left. Tech lead by as many as 32 on Armga's final points of the night with 4:37 left.

Stelzer had 20 points, all in the opening half, shooting 5-for-8 from 3-point territory. Culy finished the game with 12 points on four threes and added four assists.

"It started on the defensive end tonight," added Luke. "I thought we did an exceptional job holding them to 15 points in the first 17 minutes of the second half. To do that against a team that's going to win a lot of games in the Northern Sun is phenomenal. I'm extremely happy for our kids."

Tech led the entire game after jumping out a 14-4 lead at the first media timeout. Stelzer drained two 3-pointers and Armga had three buckets, including an old-fashioned three-point play to ignite the Huskies offense. Tech led by double digits for most of the first half but SMSU buried a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer to cut the lead to 38-30.

The Huskies shot 57 percent from the floor in the game and were a perfect 16-for-16 from the free throw line. Tech also made 10-of-22 (46 percent) 3-pointers.

Jordan Chartier added four points for the Huskies while Troy Hecht and Jeff Gregory combined for six.

SMSU also shot better than 50 percent (52) but committed 21 turnovers that led to 33 Tech points. Shaun Condon led the Mustangs with 18 points while William Giddings added 12.

Tech continues non-conference play against another team from the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference on Tuesday (Nov. 26) with a 9 p.m. tipoff at Bemidji State.

"It's a tougher situation going on the road, but it's got to start on defense for us," said Luke. "We need to get a lot better at rebounding and get some easy baskets for our post players."