Huskies Punch Ticket to GLIAC Semifinals

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HOUGHTON, Mich. – The Michigan Tech women's basketball team is headed to the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament Semifinals after topping Ohio Dominican 82-66 Tuesday night in the Quarterfinals at the SDC Wood Gym. The Huskies turned the tide of the game in the third quarter when they outscored the Panthers 26-11.

"I'm really proud of our team and how we played tonight," Michigan Tech Head Coach Kim Cameron said. "Ohio Dominican is a really good team and I thought we weathered their storm. They came at us really hard in the first half and we had a hard time understanding how they were playing, but I thought we did a better job in the second half getting through their defense. For us to make the shot going into halftime and then to make the run in the third quarter was huge. Our top players really stepped up as well and carried us in the second half."

Ohio Dominican (18-10) jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead with a layup and triple in the first 90 seconds. Madi Rittinger dropped in the layup and Tori Beth Leader connected from behind the arc. Michigan Tech (20-7) then got on the board with 7:28 to play in the first quarter on a layup from redshirt freshman Brenna Heise off an assist courtesy of senior Morgan Anderson.

The Panthers went up by five points again at 7-2 on a layup by Megan Eyre, but Tech came roaring back with an 8-0 scoring burst to take the advantage for the first time 10-7. Redshirt junior Kelli Guy tossed in a jumper followed by a trey from junior Lindsay Winter. It would the first of five successful tries for Winter from behind the arc on the night. Guy then capped the scoring run with a three-point basket with 6:04 left in the first quarter. The teams would trade buckets for the remainder of the first quarter before going into the second period tied 17-17.

The Huskies struck first in the second quarter when Guy delivered the ball inside to sophomore Elizabeth Kelliher for a layup 29 seconds into the action. Winter followed by dialing in a triple to push the Tech advantage to 22-17, their largest of the night to that point with 8:21 left on the second quarter clock.

Ohio Dominican made their largest run of the night with a 10-0 burst to surge back on top 27-22 with 5:21 to play in the half. Sarah Futscher capped the run with a conventional three-point play for the Panthers. The Huskies would trail for the remainder of the second quarter and faced a 36-30 deficit with just under a minute to go on the clock. Tech would get some of the momentum back right before halftime when Winter beat the buzzer with another trey. Anderson found her open on the perimeter with the pass to cut the gap to 36-33 at halftime.

Trailing 41-36 with 8:14 left in the third quarter, the Huskies engineered a 10-0 run of their own to regain the advantage for good. Guy found the target from behind the arc followed by a layup from Anderson, another trey by Guy, and a layup out of the hand of Heise to cap off the scoring burst. The 10 consecutive points gave Teach a 46-41 edge with just over six minutes to play in the third period.

MTU extended the gap to double digits for the first time late in the third with another flurry of six points. Junior Hannah Stoll worked her way into the paint for a layup followed by another connection from point blank range by Winter. Anderson made the score 57-45 on a jumper with 1:35 left on the third quarter clock. Ohio Dominican got two points from Lauren Bates before Winter cashed in the final bucket of the period on a layup with 25 seconds in the third, making it a 59-47 score through 30 minutes.

The Panthers sliced the Huskies lead down to nine twice in the fourth quarter, but could get no closer than that. Both times ODU looked to make things interesting, MTU answered with key buckets. Heise and Kelliher each had layups with under five minutes remaining in the contest to keep the Panthers at bay. Winter and Anderson then combined to sink 10 free throws in the final two minutes to lock down the victory.

Anderson powered the Huskies with 28 points after going 10 of 19 from the field and 7 for 7 at the free throw line. She just missed equaling a career high 29 points which she set at Ashland on January 5^th. Winter followed by recording a career high 27 points by sinking 8 of 13 shots from the field and six attempts at the charity stripe. Winter was also on target five times from behind the arc, equaling a career best for most triples in a game. Guy rounded out the double digit scorers with 13 points in the win over Ohio Dominican. Heise chipped in six points, grabbed a team high six rebounds, blocked three shots, had four assists, and four steals.

Tech found the range on 30 of 64 shots from the field (46.9%), they were 9 of 20 from three-point land (45.0%), and a perfect 13 for 13 at the free throw line (100%). The Huskies scored 34 points in the paint and picked up 15 second chance points Tuesday night. They also out-rebounded the Panthers 38-31.

Lauren Bates posted a team best 14 points for Ohio Dominican followed by Leader with 11 points. Four different players ended the game with four rebounds each while Bates distributed three assists. The Panthers made 25 of 58 shots from the field (43.1%), were 5 of 7 from behind the arc (71.4%), and 11 of 14 at the free throw line (78.6%).

The Huskies will move on to the GLIAC Semifinals to face the No.1 seed Ashland University on Saturday afternoon. The tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m. at Ashland.