The Michigan Tech Huskies men’s basketball team is on a four-game winning streak that started with a victory over then-No. 3 Minnesota State-Moorhead at the St. Louis County Basketball Classic.

Since then, the Huskies knocked off St. Cloud State, Wisconsin-Parkside, and Purdue Northwest. While none of those teams carry the prestige of MSU-Moorhead, it was still important for the Huskies to come out fast and knock off all three of them.

The wins over the Rangers and the Pride mean the Huskies are 6-3 overall and 2-0 already in GLIAC play. Even more impressively, the Huskies did it with five players in double figures against the Rangers and six in double figures against the Pride.

Junior guard and leading scorer Marcus Tomashek scored 12 against the Rangers and 15 against the Pride.

“I’m hoping there’s more and more of those,” said Huskies coach Josh Buettner, after Thursday’s win over the Rangers. “Obviously, it’s nice not to have quite the beating, and he (still) did take quite a beating tonight. He still ended up on the floor several times in limited minutes, but that balance is huge.

“There’s going to be big games where obviously we’re going to need Marcus to go get us 20, 30 points, but when we can have these nights where there’s five guys in double figures, then you become really, really hard to guard.”

After defeating the Pride, Buettner made similar comments about the sharing of the Huskies’ offense.

“Once again, we shared the ball,” he said. “There’s six guys in double figures, that’s impressive no matter what the level of basketball it is. And, 21 assists is great.”

A big reason for the balance in the offense is the attention that junior forward Dawson Nordgaard is drawing night in and night out. For the first time in his career in Houghton, Nordgaard is averaging over 10 points per game. He went 6-of-7 from the floor on Thursday against the Rangers, and he followed that up with a 6-for-6 performance Saturday against the Pride.

Buettner loves what he is getting out of Nordgaard, as the De Pere, Wisconsin, native is both scoring, and finding other ways to chip-in, including averaging three assists a game over the past week. That included the game’s opening bucket, a dunk by senior guard Pete Calcaterra, Saturday.

“The thing about that is, I mean it goes into Dawson,” Buettner said. “He’s in there. He went 6-for-6 again, and every time he’s in there, there’s three, four, five guys kind of looking at him. They’re not going to leave Marcus, and guys are stepping up and making the plays. I mean, Dawson made a great pass. Pete made a good cut. Starting off with the dunk is awesome.”

With Nordgaard chipping in the way he is, and now having players like Calcaterra, freshmen guards Gabe Smith and Ty Fernholz finding their games, suddenly the Huskies’ attack is getting deeper with each game.

“I’m hoping there’s more and more of those,” said Buettner, after the win over the Rangers on Thursday. “Obviously, it’s nice not to have (Tomashek not take) quite the beating, and he did take quite a beating tonight. He still ended up on the floor several times in limited minutes, but that balance is huge.

“There’s going to be big games where, obviously, we’re going to need Marcus to go get us 20, 30 points, but when we can have these nights where there’s five guys in double figures, then you become really, really hard to guard.”

Buettner feels that the Huskies really are turning a corner with their offense.

“We were talking about it as a staff this morning (Saturday) in shoot around, there’s going to be teams, at some point, (that) say, ‘Let’s make Marcus go get 40 and guard everybody else.’ Three weeks ago, that would have been kind of crazy when everybody, I think, was so geared on. People probably thought we were a little bit of a one-man show.

“Dawson’s been drawing that attention all along, and now so many guys are making threes, and they’re going to be afraid to leave them. When you have five, six guys that can get to double figures, and not only that, I mean, (Matt) Schmainda has been in double figures this year, Josh (Terrian) and Nate (Abel) can get there, you have the threat of nine or 10 different guys that can all get in double figures on any given night. That makes you hard to guard.”

Of course, with the Huskies playing their best basketball of the season, they are hitting their winter break before the spring semester. Buettner is concerned about how the team will work its way through the break.

“It’s good and bad,” he said. “I mean, obviously, we have Northland coming in, which is a non-conference, and then (Wisconsin-)Green Bay, which is an exhibition for us. But, we don’t play a conference game again until after the New Year.

“When things are clicking offensively, and you’re playing well, you want to keep playing. But, I also know we’re a little bit beat up. The guys are mentally tired. So, now it’s kind of a challenge here of trying to keep the chemistry and the level where it’s at, while, at the same time, getting everybody recovered, trying to take a few extra days off here, get their bodies feeling right, and get their minds right for the long-haul stretch of the conference season.”