Men’s Basketball Falls for the First Time This Season

HOUGHTON, Mich. – In a battle of unbeaten teams, Walsh defeated Michigan Tech 93-83 on Saturday (Dec. 7) afternoon from the SDC Gym. The Cavaliers shot over 60 percent from the field and had four players in double figures in their first game in Houghton. Tech is now 4-1 and 1-1 in the GLIAC.

"That was a team that came in and did their stuff better than our stuff," Tech coach Kevin Luke said. "We played hard, but they were just that much better offensively than we were defensively.

"There's a lot of good coming out of this game. We gutted it out and made a couple runs but credit goes to Walsh. They're a good club and they earned all 93 of their points."

Tech twice got the Cavaliers margin down to seven in the last four minutes of the game but Jesse Hardin buried six free throws to extend Walsh's winning streak to five games.

Walsh (5-0, 2-0 GLIAC) led most of the first half and had a 38-28 lead with 5:32 remaining. The Huskies went on an 11-4 run to cut it down to three and then got a jumper from Ben Stelzer and a free throw from Austin Armga to cut the margin down to two at the break.

The visitors extended their halftime lead to eight (52-44) early in the second half, but Tech battled back to make it a two-point game after back-to-back 3-pointer by Stelzer, including one from seven feet behind the line.

Armga continued his offensive show finishing with a game-high 32 points on 12-for-19 shooting. He also made 8-of-9 from the free throw line and had six rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Stelzer scored 27 points with 21 of them coming from behind the 3-point line. He also tallied five assists and made all four of his free throws. Luke Heller scored a career-high 14 points on 7-for-9 shooting. Troy Hecht contributed with seven rebounds and seven points.

For Walsh, Hardin finished with 30 points while Jeff Copeland (20), Trey Fletcher (14) and Hrvoje Vucic (12) were also in double figures.

The Cavs shot 62 percent (18-for-29) from the field and out-rebounded the Huskies by two (30-28).

Tech plays at Findlay on Dec. 12 and Hillsdale on Dec. 14 to begin GLIAC play on the road.

"We can't feel sorry for ourselves because it doesn't get any easier next week," Luke added. "I'm excited to go down and play Findlay and Hillsdale but we need to take care of some of the mistakes that we can't make in a big time games like this one."