Michigan Tech Pulls Away Late To Top NMU, 77-66
This story was written by MTU Athletics "I'm really happy for these guys and the program," Michigan Tech Head Coach Kevin Luke said. "We were clearly disappointed with the outcome in Marquette and we talked about how we could be better as a unit today and focused on us. This is a huge rivalry game and both teams played like it. We were fortunate to get a little bit of a lead in the first half and we knew they would make a run at us in the second half. I'm proud of our team for hanging on by staying within ourselves and executing down the stretch." Senior A.J. Grazulis and Heath then teamed up to spark a mini 7-0 run that pushed the Huskies back in front 16-10. Grazulis put back an offensive rebound for two points, Heath drained a trey, and Grazulis worked his way back into the paint where Monroe found him with a pass for an open layup with 12:20 left on the first half clock. Meanwhile, Tech's defense continued to halt the Wildcats attack enabling the Huskies to construct a 15-point 27-12 advantage with 5:25 to go until the break. Back to back triples by Taylor and Will Carius helped pull the Wildcats to within five at 36-31 in the early moments of the second half. Michigan Tech regrouped to build the lead back to 11 points at 45-34 a few minutes later when Monroe fed the ball inside for a Bell layup with 14:17 to go. The Wildcats though used the next eight minutes to erase the Huskies advantage, tying the score at 54-54 on a three-point basket by Isaiah Johnson with 6:20 to play. Although the Huskies would never relinquish the lead from that point forward, the Wildcats stayed within one to two possessions until the last 90 seconds. Leading 67-64, Heath came up with a huge layup followed by two free throws with 59 seconds to go, creating a crucial 71-64 gap. Grazulis followed Monroe by matching a season high 13 points while contributing a team best eight rebounds. Five of the rebounds were on the offensive end of the floor and a major contributing factor to 17 second chance points in the contest for Tech. Heath rounded out the double digit scorers with 10 points and five rebounds on Sunday. The Huskies found the target on 27 of 56 shots from the field (48.2%), were 5 of 13 from behind the arc (38.5%), and 18 of 22 at the free throw line (81.8%). Tech recorded 32 points in the paint, had a 35-30 edge in rebounding, and turned the ball over just four times. |