David Archambeau/For the Gazette Michigan Tech guard Pete Calcaterra dunks during a GLIAC semifinal game against Northern Michigan Saturday at the SDC Gym in Houghton.

HOUGHTON — At halftime, the No. 20 Michigan Tech Huskies men’s basketball team trailed their rivals rom 100 miles down the road, the Northern Michigan Wildcats, 33-25, Saturday during a GLIAC semifinal matchup at the SDC Gym.

The Huskies, who won both meetings with the Wildcats during the regular season, made a tremendous push in the second half, and had the ball in the hands of GLIAC Player of the Year Marcus Tomashek in the final seconds, but Tomashek’s 11th 3-point attempt bounced off the rim, and the Huskies fell, 69-68.

“I’m proud of the guys,” said Huskies coach Josh Buettner. “Getting down 17 and coming all the way back, giving yourself a chance to win the game, is really good. I wish we could get a stop down the stretch. We just couldn’t.

“We battled through a 4-of-22 (3-point) shooting in our own gym. That really hasn’t happened to us shooting the three all year. We took care of the ball. There were a couple big offensive rebounds that really hurt us. I don’t think we played a great game. And you know what? You still had your best player getting a pretty clean look on the spot he wanted to shoot it from that was almost down.”

Buettner lamented the timing of Tomashek shot attempt, thinking that if he had shot a little earlier, there might have been a chance to do something with the offensive rebound that senior guard Adam Hobson tracked down.

“I wish we would have gone a tad quicker at the end so that, maybe, Hobson has a chance to get a better look off the offensive rebound,” he said.

For the Wildcats (21-9 overall), who lost in Houghton, 67-64, on Feb. 20, the game capped a strong push they have put on in recent weeks.

“It’s kind of crazy,” said Wildcats coach Matt Majkrzak. “It feels like sometimes you have your worst moments, and I thought we were really frustrated leaving here last time. (We) had lost three in a row against the top part of the league. The message afterwards was, if we handle what we need to handle, which was winning the last three regular season games, we probably will get another chance at it. We wanted another crack at it, and we got one. We were able to deliver.”

The Huskies (23-7 overall) came into Saturday’s matchup 13-0 at the SDC Gym this season. Despite that, Majkrzak felt that his team could have success in their rival’s building.

“To be honest, this gym has been okay for us,” he said. “I know a lot of Northern teams have struggled at Tech over the years. We’re not one of them. We’ve actually struggled more at home against them than we have here. Particularly, obviously, got them in the tournament a few years ago, and some of the same players were on that team. So I think there was some confidence going into it that we’d done it before.

“So, even though the record at home was daunting, we had played in this exact game, in the exact same scenario, three years ago, and we’re able to win that one to get to the finals,” Majkrzak said. “So, it’s something like we’ve done before.”

Northern forward Dylan Kuehl caught fire in the first half, scoring 10 of the Wildcats’ 33 points in the opening 20 minutes. From there, he continued to find ways to score in the second half, finishing with 26 points.

“We knew it was only a matter of time before they got hot, so we just tried to keep our composure, keep doing what we did in the first half to get up, just try and stay up,” he said. “Like I said, we knew it was a matter of time before their guys got hot. We just had to try and keep our composure.”

The Wildcats led by 17, 51-34, with 13:40 remaining. Hobson got the Huskies going with a layup. Then freshman guard Ty Fernholz stole the ball from Kuehl, ran the floor and made a layup, and suddenly the Huskies were rolling.

Tomashek started drawing all kinds of attention, and that led to multiple trips to the free throw line, where he went 16-of-19 in the game. He finished with a game-high 28 points.

Just before the halfway point of the half, Fernholz drained a 3-pointer from right in front of the Huskies’ bench, and suddenly they trailed by just four, 51-47.

Tomashek and the Huskies kept pushing, probing the Wildcats’ defense until he made one of two free throws to tie things up at 60-60 with 4:08 left.

From there, the teams traded free throws until guard Derek Merwick put the Wildcats up, 69-68, with 21.2 seconds left.

Buettner considered calling a timeout, but instead chose to let Tomashek find the shot he wanted, a 3-point attempt from the high left side that did not fall.

Hobson (12), Fernholz (10), and freshman guard Gabe Smith (10) all finished in double figures for the Huskies.

UP NEXT

The Huskies now wait for NCAA Selection Sunday to see if they have qualified for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.