Michigan Tech forward Dawson Nordgaard extends for a layup during a game against St. Cloud State Wednesday at the SDC Gym. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)

HOUGHTON — The Michigan Tech Huskies men’s basketball team used a balanced attack, producing 44 points in each quarter to prevail against St. Cloud State 88-70 in front of the home crowd for the first time this season on Wednesday evening.

Junior guard Marcus Tomashek led five players in double-figure scoring with 20 points on six-for-11 shooting. Sophomore guard Matt Schmainda had a coming out party in the home opener, pouring on five-for-eight from long range to score a new career-high 15 points as Pete Calcaterra (11 points), Dawson Nordgaard (10 points) and Adam Hobson (10 points) rounded out the double-digit scorers.

Michigan Tech caps the opening non-conference slate with a 4-3 record as St. Cloud State drops to 4-4 overall.

“I thought we came out pretty focused and locked in–I felt we were at the level of competitiveness we needed,” Huskies coach Josh Buettner said. “We really felt like pace was going to help us against this type of team and we were a little sloppy at times but for the most part I thought we defended well–they got to the foul line too much but I liked the competitiveness we had on the defensive side of the ball. The biggest thing I liked offensively was the balance. It was good not relying on Marcus or Dawson so much, which was really good.”

MTU opened the game red-hot, shooting 9-for-11, leading 24-15 following the under 12-minute media timeout. Junior Josh Terrian opened the contest with a 3-pointer and the Huskies followed his lead as the team connected on a season-high 14 3-pointers, shooting 14-for-28 from downtown.

Calcaterra added six points early in the contest before Schmainda hit back-to-back triples with 6:59 to play to give the Huskies a 37-19 advantage, forcing St. Cloud State to talk it over.

The road Huskies’ timeout worked momentarily as SCSU strung together a 9-2 run before being held scoreless over the final 3:12 as Michigan Tech sustained a 44-28 lead heading into halftime.

Michigan Tech went 14-for-29 from the field in the second half, while maintaining the same stat line from 3-point land as the first, seven-for-14. Tomashek had a quiet second half for his standards, but still produced a team-high nine points in the final 20 minutes.

The Huskies’ lead swelled to 22 points with 7:22 to play in regulation coming from back-to-back free throws by Tomashek (76-50).

Redshirt freshman Gabe Smith recorded a career-high four steals and also dished out two assists with his second one coming from an emphatic fast-break dunk by first-year forward Grant Warren, who followed the dunk with a 3-pointer moments later.

Smith also recorded the last points for the Black and Gold, getting an offensive rebound for a slam dunk to decide the game at 88-70.

“We were all really excited to get back in our gym after six road games to start the season,” Tomashek added. “We play for each other and we had a lot of guys shooting it well and playing together tonight.”

Nordgaard recorded a team-leading six rebounds adding two steals and a block defensively. As a team, Michigan Tech saw 41 points come from the bench.

St. Cloud State was led by Lucas Morgan who scored 18 points while Wyatt Hawks grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.

UP NEXT

The Huskies remain at home the next two weekends, opening GLIAC play next week, welcoming Wisconsin-Parkside on Thursday (7:30 p.m.) and Purdue Northwest Saturday (2 p.m.) at the SDC Gymnasium.