Huskies Fall Short at Lake Superior State Thursday Night

SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. – The Michigan Tech men's basketball team was unable to pull off a comeback on the road down by four points with 4:09 to play, falling 82-71 at Lake Superior State on Thursday evening.

"I thought we had some fight—we made Lake State beat us, which we didn't do at our place," head coach Josh Buettner said. "They shot exceptionally well and they had to play a really good game to beat us and although we weren't at full strength, I liked the fight we had."

Michigan Tech (6-13, 3-7 GLIAC) and Lake Superior State (14-6, 6-4 GLIAC) traded baskets for the first 6:21 before the Lakers started to pull away. Peyton LaCombe, making his first career start, kindled the Huskies offense early with eight points, going 3-for-3 from the field and hitting two 3-pointers while Dawson Nordgaard chipped in four.

The Lakers got to an eight-point advantage twice before a dunk by Kingsley Perkins made it a 10-point game, forcing the Huskies to take a timeout.

Michigan Tech played from behind by 8-10 points the remainder of the first half before heading into halftime trailing 38-27. 

The Huskies were down by almost double-digits for the entirety of the second half but cut the lead to five points at the 17:58 mark and four points with 4:09 to play following a 3-pointer by Nate Abel, who accounted for 12 points in the second half. 

On the next possession, Xander Okerlund drew a foul while taking a 3-pointer, which swung the momentum back in favor of the Lakers after Tech strung together an 8-0 run.

Peter Nwoke hit two free throws to make it a seven-point affair with 1:45 to play, ultimately forcing the Huskies to foul down the stretch before the Lakers sealed the game at 82-71.

Dawson Nordgaard led the Huskies with 17 points, with Marcus Tomashek (14), Nate Abel (14) and Peyton LaCombe joining him in double-figure scoring. Abel also had a team-high six rebounds, two assists and two steals.

Devin Womack had a team-leading 22 points, while Hunter Soper grabbed a team-high seven boards.

Up Next 

The Huskies wrap up a five-game stretch on the road on Saturday at No. 20 Ferris State at 3 p.m.